Early on August 2, a fireball streaked across the southeastern sky of the United States, likely a fragment from an unidentified comet.
The fireball streaking through the American sky on August 2. (Video: Space).
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 74 reports about a fireball on the night of the August full moon from witnesses in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Some reports also indicated that the fireball produced a sonic boom loud enough to shake buildings and wake residents.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. The initial flash was brilliant and brighter than the streetlights in my yard. That’s why I looked up and saw it,” said Dustin L., one of the witnesses who saw the fireball descend. The light was bright enough to overshadow the full moon in the east, according to another observer, Jack W.
Initially, many believed the fireball originated from the Perseid meteor shower or one of the other two meteor showers currently occurring. However, its trajectory did not match any of those showers.
The fireball is likely a fragment of a comet, according to meteor expert Bill Cooke from NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. Cooke estimated that the fireball was a piece of comet measuring approximately 30 cm in diameter and weighing 34 kg.
The fireball created an explosion equivalent to about 2 tons of TNT.
“The object entered Earth’s atmosphere about 80 km above the town of Krypton, Kentucky, traveling southeast at a speed of 60,000 km/h. It flew through the atmosphere for 105 km before disintegrating above Duffield, Virginia, at around 48 km,” Cooke stated.
Based on audio data recorded by the University of Western Ontario, Cooke believed the fireball produced an explosion equivalent to about 2 tons of TNT. At its peak, the object was even five times brighter than the full moon. Scientists have yet to identify from which comet the fragment originated.
