Fireball may bring memories of past meteorites that fell in Florida
The American Meteor Society received nearly 150 reports of a meteor flashing through the daytime sky Thursday, June 26.
Most of the reports were from Georgia and South Carolina, but a few reported seeing the fireball from Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina.
It's possible the "rock" that hit a Georgia home was meteorite associated with the fireball.
Meteorites aren't very common in Florida, but there have been documented reports over the last 100 years, including three in this century, according to The Meteoritical Society.
The NWS station in Peachtree City, Georgia, posted on Facebook, "It appears that either a meteor or space junk crossed the skies of north Georgia just before 12:30 p.m." June 26.
The American Meteor Society logged more than 200 witness reports from North Florida up to North Carolina and Tennessee of a bright streak in the sky. Most of the reports were in northeastern Georgia and western South Carolina, at around 12:21 p.m. ET.
Bill Cooke, the chief of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told The New York Times and local news outlets the meteor was about 3 feet in diameter and weighed more than 1 ton
The Peachtree National Weather Service said "a citizen reported that a 'rock' fell through their ceiling around the time of the reports of the 'earthquake.'"
"We are presuming that a piece of the object fell through their roof," the Peachtree NWS said.
"Henry County EMA also reported that the object broke through the roof, then the ceiling, before cracking the laminate on the floor and stopping."
While not as common as neighboring states, meteorites have been reported in Florida. The Meteoritical Society lists the following:
Okechobee, 1916
2.2 pounds
Eustis, 1918
1.1 pounds
Bonita Springs, 1938
92 pounds
Grayton, 1983
24.9 pounds
Orlando, 2004
.39 pounds
Tiger Tail, 2015
.08 pounds
Osceola, 2016
In total, eight stones were found with a combined weight of 2.4 pounds
A "confirmed fall" followed a "large daytime fireball (that) streaked across the sky in northern Florida" on Jan. 24, 2016.
Designated as Osceola, eight meteorites were found in the Osceola Wildlife Management Area west of Jacksonville, with a combined weight of 2.4 pounds, according to The Meteoritical Society
➤ See photos
A meteoroid is a rock in space. It becomes a meteor when it enters Earth's atmosphere and is commonly called a "shooting star" or "fireball." If it hits the ground, it's a meteorite, NASA said.
"Scientists estimate about 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls on Earth each day," according to NASA. "Almost all the material is vaporized in Earth's atmosphere, leaving a bright trail fondly called 'shooting stars.'
"Several meteors per hour can usually be seen on any given night. Sometimes the number increases dramatically —these events are called meteor showers."
The Bootid meteor shower is an unpredictable shower that peaks today, June 27, although it'll remain active until about July 2, according to In-The-Sky.org.
The best times to catch the Bootid meteor shower are a couple of hours before dawn and after sunset, according to Forbes.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, C.A. Bridges, USA Today Network-Florida
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Fireball in the sky: List of meteorites that hit Florida
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