A bright streak of light lit up the midday sky over parts of the Southeast U.S. on Thursday, capturing the attention of many across the region. Around 12:30 p.m., people in Georgia and South Carolina saw a fireball shooting down from the sky, creating quite a spectacle. The National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia, said the glowing object was likely a meteor or space debris burning up as it fell through the atmosphere.
In one startling incident, someone in Henry County, Georgia, reported that a rock crashed through their roof just as a loud sonic boom echoed nearby. The object made a hole about the size of a golf ball in the ceiling and even cracked a laminate floor beneath it. Emergency crews are now investigating the area where the rock struck, roughly 25 miles southeast of Atlanta.
The event was caught on camera by various dashboard and doorbell devices across several states, showing the fireball heading almost straight down. In total, over 140 people from Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee reported the sighting to the American Meteor Society.
Meteors and bits of space junk fall through Earth’s atmosphere all the time, but it’s rare for one to shine so brightly in broad daylight. The intense glow comes from the friction generated as the object speeds through the air and slows down. Most of these objects break up into tiny fragments before anything reaches the ground.
This dazzling fireball became a brief but unforgettable moment for many in the Southeast, reminding us how lively the skies above us can be.