A fireball captured on a dashcam in South Carolina Kathryn Rose Farr via Facebook
Sightings of a fireball streaking down from the sky were reported by eyewitnesses in several south-eastern US states on the afternoon of 26 June.
The American Meteor Society’s has logged at least 142 reports about the fireball event from observers in multiple states such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The National Weather Service office in Charleston, South Carolina, that “satellite-based lightning detection” showed a streak in the sky over the border between North Carolina and Virginia between 11.51 and 11.56am Eastern Daylight Time.
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A dashcam video from a driver in upstate South Carolina the fiery object plummeting from the sky before disappearing behind a forested area adjacent to the highway. Another car driving south-west of Columbia, South Carolina, also captured of the falling object.
“This was clearly a natural rock coming down and not artificial space debris,” says , an astronomer who tracks space launches.
VIDEO | This was just sent to me taken from a dash camera on I-85 SB in Upstate South Carolina
— Cody Alcorn (@CodyAlcorn)
It may have been what’s known as a fireball event, where a bright meteor explodes and breaks apart as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere, said at the American Meteor Society in an with WXIA-TV in Georgia.
Meteorologist Chris Jackson on social media that local fire departments were responding to reports of “fireballs falling out of the sky” but that the emergency responders had not found anything on the ground as of early afternoon.
There are currently no major meteor showers and visible from Earth. The next major meteor shower event involves the Southern delta Aquariids starting next month.
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