Fireball meteor filmed hovering over North Carolina at 32,000 mph

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a … fireball?

A video recently released by the American Meteor Society shows a fireball moving across the sky over North Carolina last Friday.

According to NASA Meteor Watch, the phenomenon was observed over North Carolina after 7:30 p.m., one of several sightings of fireballs in the United States that night.

A NASA analysis said the meteor “grazed the coast of North Carolina,” visible to tourists about 48 miles above the ocean in Jacksonville, North Carolina, blazing across the sky at 32 000 mph.

Meteoroids typically enter Earth’s atmosphere between 25,000 and 160,000 mph, however, they “decelerate rapidly” as they travel through the atmosphere, according to the nonprofit American Meteor Society.

The fireball traveled 26 miles through Earth’s upper atmosphere, later disintegrating 28 miles above Morehead City.

Up to 150 people across Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia have also reported seeing a streaked fireball pass through their states, AMS reports.

Friday’s fireball was captured in two different videos, one video presented by AMS having over 200,000 views.

So what exactly is a “fireball”? The fireballs, according to experts, are considered “unusually bright” meteors that appear brighter than the planet Venus.

Most often, fireballs are seen by “ground spotters” at night.

“Several thousand” fireball meteors occur in Earth’s atmosphere every day, the vast majority occurring over oceans and uninhabited areas, according to AMS.

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