Rare daytime fireball meteor visible across Southeastern U.S.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A rare daytime fireball meteor was visible across a good portion of the southeast United States just after lunch Thursday afternoon.

The bolide meteor was also visible from space and may have made it to the ground as a small rock crashing through someone’s roof outside of Atlanta.

A hole in the roof of a home in Henry County, Ga.

Henry County Emergency Management outside of Atlanta, Ga. responded to a report of a “rock” crashing through the ceiling of some home southeast of Atlanta. The picture shows a small hole in the ceiling of someone’s home.

A drive captured a picture of a the falling meteor on their dashcam (Courtesy of Bryan James Updyke)
A map with the overview of the state of Georgia, showing where the Bolide meteor landed (Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

The meteor also could be seen from space on NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite. It appeared as a bright flash on the satellite outside of Atlanta, similar to the burst of lightning in western North Carolina you can see on the same satellite.

A map with the overview of the state of Georgia, showing where the Bolide meteor landed (Courtesy of CIRA/CSU/NOAA)

Bright fireballs are caused by friction as an object enters the atmosphere and slows down considerably. Almost all objects break into minuscule pieces before striking the ground, according to NASA.

Dashboard and doorbell cameras across several Southeast U.S. states caught glimpses of the fireball that appeared to be plummeting straight down. More than 140 people in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee reported the object to the American Meteor Society.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.