NASA Says One-Ton Asteroid Fragment Lit Up Southeast at 30,000 mph

A rare daytime fireball that streaked across the southeastern United States on Thursday was caused by a small asteroid fragment, NASA said on Friday. The object flashed across clear skies at about 12:25 p.m. Eastern time, drawing calls to emergency services from Georgia to North Carolina and prompting more than 215 sighting reports to the American Meteor Society.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office calculated that the fragment was roughly three feet in diameter, weighed more than a ton and entered the atmosphere at around 30,000 mph. It was first detected 48 miles above Oxford, Georgia, before disintegrating 27 miles above West Forest with an energy release comparable to 20 tons of TNT, generating sonic booms that rattled windows across the region.

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper aboard NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, along with Doppler weather radars, captured the flash and subsequent debris signatures. National Weather Service offices in Atlanta and Charleston later confirmed that no seismic activity occurred, attributing reports of shaking to the pressure wave from the meteoroid’s breakup.

Search teams are examining a suspected strewn field southeast of Atlanta after a rock believed to be a meteorite pierced the roof of a home in Henry County, Georgia. No injuries were reported, but officials have asked residents who find unusual stones to contact authorities to aid in recovery and scientific analysis.

Daylight fireballs are uncommon—NASA estimates only a handful occur worldwide each year. Scientists are continuing to review satellite, radar and infrasound data to refine the object’s trajectory and determine whether additional meteorites reached the ground.