Mystery fireball spotted plummeting to Earth over the US

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 website 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, said 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.

A dashcam video from a driver in upstate South Carolina shows 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 footage of the falling object.

This may have been what’s known as a bolide fireball event, where a bright meteor explodes and breaks apart as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere, said Mike Hankey at the American Meteor Society in an interview with WXIA-TV in Georgia.

Meteorologist Chris Jackson posted on social media that local fire departments were responding to reports of “fireballs falling out of the sky” but added that the emergency responders had not found anything on the ground as of early afternoon.

There are currently no major meteor showers active and visible from Earth. The next major meteor shower event involves the Southern delta Aquariids starting next month.