Meteor spotted streaking above Texas responsible for sonic booms, NASA says
NBC News • • science
Key Points:
- A bright fireball seen over southeastern Texas on Saturday afternoon was confirmed by NASA to be a meteor that likely broke apart over the Houston area around 4:40 p.m. local time.
- The meteor, estimated to be about 3 feet across and weighing roughly a ton, traveled at 35,000 mph and broke apart 29 miles above Bammel, causing sonic booms heard by residents.
- A Houston resident reported a possible meteorite crashing through her roof, leaving a hole and a heavy black rock about the size of a baseball in her daughter’s room, though no injuries occurred.
- The American Meteor Society received over 140 reports of the fireball across south-central and southeastern Texas, with Doppler radar suggesting meteorites may have fallen in areas between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.
- This event follows a similar fireball sighting four days earlier in northeastern Ohio and Pennsylvania, where a small asteroid caused sonic booms and fragmented, releasing energy equivalent to 250 tons of TNT.
