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Recently released images show a spectacular 32,000 mph (51,500 km / h) blazing fireball in the sky over South Carolina on Friday evening (September 24), the American Meteor Society (AMS) reported. .
More than 80 people spotted the fireball, which NASA said was just one of five reported meteors flying over the United States that evening. The flaming meteor “grazed the coast of North Carolina, becoming visible 48 miles away [77 kilometers] over the ocean off Camp Lejeune, ”NASA said at around 7:40 p.m. ET.
The flamboyant meteor followed a north-easterly course “covering 26 miles [42 km] through of the earth upper atmosphere “before disintegrating 28 miles above Morehead City, NC.
Related: Tales from space: the 5 strangest meteorites
Fireballs are meteors that appear brighter than the planet Venus, according to AMS, which means they’re in theory visible in daylight – like the March 2021 fireball that lit up the afternoon sky in parts of the UK, Previously reported live science.
Flaming space rocks owe their striking luster to their large sizes and blazing speeds, which create a significant amount of friction when the rocks hit Earth’s atmosphere. As the fireballs enter the atmosphere at speeds far exceeding the sound barrier – between 25,000 and 160,000 mph (around 40,000 to just under 260,000 km / h), according to AMS – they can also happen accompanied by a huge sonic boom.
Video footage, which was captured from the front porch camera of a house in Rowland Pond, North Carolina, shows the shiny rock leaving a dazzling, fiery trail across the night sky before disappearing behind a distant tree blanket .
If a fireball explodes overhead, it can cause serious damage. The most explosive meteoric event in recent history, which occurred over the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013, created an explosion roughly equivalent to 400 to 500 kilotons of TNT , or 26 to 33 times the energy released by the Hiroshima bomb. Balls of fire fell in and around Chelyabinsk, damaging buildings, shattering windows and injuring around 1,200 people.
The Chelyabinsk explosion is far from the most apocalyptic event caused by a fireball. Recent archaeological evidence indicates that a fireball exploded over the ancient Middle Eastern city of Tall el-Hamman about 3,600 years ago. The explosion, which was about 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, immediately set the city ablaze before razing it with a powerful shock wave, killing all of its residents, Live Science previously reported.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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