A meteor estimated to be the size of a car passed over Texas on the night of July 24, producing a sonic boom.
The meteor appeared in the Texas sky on July 24. (Video: AMS)
Two meteors streaked across the central United States last weekend, briefly illuminating the sky. These small space rocks entered the atmosphere at extremely high speeds and ignited due to friction.
Initially, the American Meteor Society (AMS) received over 150 reports of a meteor sighting at 1:52 AM on July 22 (local time), with most reports coming from Indiana, though some observers also spotted it in Alabama and Wisconsin. Just two nights later, at 10:52 PM on July 24, over 200 people saw and even heard the explosion from a larger meteor above Texas.
The meteor entering the atmosphere above rural Texas.
“Some individuals in the area near the meteor’s flight path reported hearing a sonic boom. This means that fragments from this meteor may have ‘survived’ and landed on the ground,” said Robert Lunsford, a specialist at AMS.
Computer models of the meteor’s trajectory indicate that it entered the atmosphere above rural Texas, southeast of Austin. It then traveled over the urban area and burned up to the west of Austin.
Most “fireballs” of this nature are about the size of a pebble when they enter the atmosphere. However, Lunsford estimates that the meteor over Texas could be as large as a car, traveling through space at approximately 58,000 km/h before crashing to Earth.
While most meteors burn up in the upper atmosphere, the larger meteor that fell over Texas may have left behind small fragments. Nevertheless, no reports have yet confirmed the discovery of any meteorite debris on the ground.
