NASA intrigued by five fireballs over America in one night

One of them crossed the upper atmosphere at 32,000 mph.

Fireball alert

NASA’s Meteor Watch confirmed the sighting of at least five fireballs hovering in the evening sky over the United States last Friday night.

In a Facebook post, Meteor Watch noted that there were at least 80 eyewitness accounts of a huge fireball hovering over the North Carolina coast, becoming visible around 7:40 p.m.

The giant space rock finally disintegrated after traveling 26 miles through the upper atmosphere at an estimated speed of 32,000 mph. It is not clear from the Facebook post whether a single meteor shattered to form several small fireballs during its descent, or whether several fireballs passed through the upper atmosphere – a spectacular sight nonetheless. for those lucky enough to watch the night sky at the right time.

To burn

The trajectories of the fireballs remain ambiguous.

“There is more than the usual amount of uncertainty in the trajectory solution due to the fact that all observers are located west of the fireball,” reads the post from NASA.

There have been as many as 150 reports of fireballs in Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

A video linked by Meteor Watch shows one of the huge fireballs burning in the distant sky. Several other videos were also shared by the American Meteor Society.

Burns so bright

The fireballs are “unusually bright” meteors, burning more than the planet Venus in the night sky, according to the American Meteor Society.

“Several thousand fireball-magnitude meteors occur in Earth’s atmosphere every day,” reads the American Meteor Society’s Fireball FAQ. “The vast majority of them, however, occur over oceans and uninhabited areas, and a good number are obscured by daylight.”

READ MORE: NASA reports multiple fireballs crossing US skies [The Hill]

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