Fireball seen as meteorite streaks through sky over Georgia and South Carolina

A fireball, or a bright meteorite, was seen across the southeastern United States on Thursday and later exploded over Georgia, creating booms heard by residents in the area, according to NASA.

The American Meteor Society said it received more than 160 reports of a fireball sighting from observers in Georgia and South Carolina at 12:25 p.m. ET. The meteor was first seen at an altitude of 48 miles above the town of Oxford, Georgia, moving southwest at 30,000 miles per hour, said Bill Cooke, a lead at NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. 

The fireball later exploded 27 miles above West Forest, Georgia, unleashing an energy of about 20 tons of TNT. Cooke said the fireball was 3 feet in diameter and weighed more than a ton (2,000 pounds).

“The resulting pressure wave propagated to the ground, creating booms heard by many in that area,” Cooke said in a statement. 

When a space rock enters the atmosphere on its own and burns up, it’s called a meteor. It’s a meteorite if it survives the trip and makes contact with the ground before burning up. Those that appear especially bright are called fireballs, according to NASA. 

This daylight fireball on Thursday could be a member of the Beta Taurid meteor shower, which includes meteors that are rarely seen and are typically active from late June to early July, peaking around June 25, said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society.

“I would estimate that we receive reports of one daylight event per month from all over the world,” Lunsford told CBS News. “I would say one out [of] every 700 fireball events involves a fireball seen during daylight hours. So these events are rare, and most people go a lifetime without seeing one.”

A fireball during the evening was seen over vast sections of the eastern U.S. and parts of Canada in February 2024.