LINVILLE, N.C. – It wasn't a bird or a plane spotted by people in nearly a dozen states just after 1 a.m. on Friday. Instead, it was a fireball that both illuminated the sky and created the sound of a sonic boom.
The American Meteor Society said it received over 150 reports of people both seeing and hearing the event, which NASA later classified as a "very bright" fireball – a rather infrequent event.
According to the space agency, the event began about 45 miles above Piney Flats,
Tennessee, and moved south and eastward at an astonishing 31,300 miles per hour.
Its analysis suggested the asteroidal fragment weighed around 1,000 pounds and was about 2 feet in diameter before disintegrating over
North Carolina.
"The breakup produced an energy of 10 tons of TNT, which generated a pressure wave that propagated to the ground, causing the booms heard by many of the eyewitnesses," the agency said.
Residents who were driving along Interstate 40 or those who had their security cameras pointed in the correct direction of the northern and western sky captured the sights on video.
Grandfather Mountain Nature Preserve, home to an outdoor recreational area about 90 minutes outside of
Asheville, N.C., was one of many locales that captured the sights on its camera network.
"You may have heard that our area experienced some excitement early this morning via an apparent meteor!"
the nature preserve stated. "A couple of our park cameras captured the landscape totally lighting up just before 1:15 a.m., and we thought it would be fun to share our view of the phenomenon."
Comments were similar throughout the Carolinas and Tennessee, with witnesses seeing the fireball for 7 seconds or more, which is considered to be a rather lengthy event.
"Never seen anything like it before. Not like a comet. Not a long tail but bright green and fast. Had to have crashed on right side of I-40 East but never saw an explosion. It was wild," another witness stated.
Even though less than 5% of meteors survive their plunge through Earth’s atmosphere to become meteorites,
NASA believes there is a distinct possibility that some matter struck the ground during Friday's event.
The agency highlighted areas around communities such as Spruce Pine, Ingalls and Altapass in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where space fragments may have landed.
If you come into contact with any space matter, the pieces are unlikely to pose a health risk, but experts would like to hear from you. Witnesses can contact Appalachian State’s Geology Department at
loveab@appstate.edu or 828-262-6952.
Planetary experts estimate that only 500 meteorites reach Earth’s surface each year, with fewer than a dozen that are ever recovered.
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