There have been multiple reports and videos of fireballs hurtling through the US skies during the past week.
Written content from Julia Musto
The largest amount of eyewitness accounts totaled over 80 associated with an event that occurred at 7:40 p.m. ET over the North Carolina coast.
“An analysis of these accounts shows that the meteor skimmed the coast of North Carolina, becoming visible 48 miles above the ocean off Camp Lejeune, moving northeast at 32,000 miles per hour. It disintegrated 28 miles above Morehead City, after traveling 26 miles through Earth’s upper atmosphere,” NASA wrote.
However, the agency noted that there is more than the usual amount of uncertainty in the “trajectory solution” due to all observers being located west of the fireball.
The American Meteor Society says it received 151 reports about a fireball seen over Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia on the same night.
NASA also linked to a video of the event provided to the organization which now has more than 318,000 views.
Home security cameras picked up an amazing sight in the night skies over Colorado early Sunday morning. Read more from NYPost
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A notification on Doug Robinson’s phone alerted him to a sight he’d never seen before Sunday.
“Everything was pitch dark, and all of a sudden it lit up as if it was a brightly lit moon,” Robinson said.
He says what first looked like a flash of lightning was clearly much more, with each home security camera giving a different view. A fireball streaked across the sky at around 4:30 a.m.
“We figured it was probably a meteorite,” said Robinson. “We weren’t sure if it was maybe something else. Could it be space junk?”
Robinson’s experience is one of more than 41 reported to the American Meteor Society on Sunday. About six of those reported hearing a boom as well.
“That means that it actually did get quite close to the ground,” said Chris Peterson from Cloudbait Observatory.
He says what countless videos show is a fireball or super fireball meteor. “It’s unusual for such a large object. I’m guessing it was somewhere around the order of like a ton of rock, probably.”
Peterson says it’s likely this soared over Boulder or a northern part of Park County. And while most of it turned to dust, some small chunks may be on the ground.
“Whether anything gets found or not remains to be seen,” he said.
Moving forward, the more reports and physical evidence, the more researchers can learn.
For Robinson and everyone else, Sunday should a reminder to look up.
“It’s that kind of event of a lifetime, an amazing little piece of nature that you should relish having seen,” said Peterson.
Peterson says pieces that make it to the ground usually range in size from gravel to about the size of a baseball. Read more from Local 12
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