Latest news with #MikeHankey
CNN
2 hours ago
- Climate
- CNN
Fireball spotted over Southeast US may have been caused by meteor
A rarely seen daytime fireball that may have been dropped by a meteor was spotted across the Southeast on Thursday — creating a sonic boom that blared through the region. The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on Thursday afternoon, its website shows. The reports came during the Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level meteor shower that is ongoing this week, according to an American Meteor Society list. 'It looks to be a 'daytime fireball' that caused a sonic boom. This is usually indicative of a (meteor) dropping a fireball, but not always,' Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, told CNN. Seeing a daytime fireball is a rare occurrence: Fireballs are easier to view at night, but have to be much brighter to be visible during the day, the American Meteor Society says. It's also 'quite rare' for sonic booms to be heard on the ground when a fireball occurs, according to the organization. One fireball fell and likely broke apart into at least dozens if not hundreds of fragments, Hankey said. Whether the fireball hit the ground has yet to be confirmed, but there have been reports of a piece of meteorite hitting a home in Henry County, Georgia, he said. Between 11:51 to 11:56 a.m. Thursday, satellite-based lighting detection showed 'a streak within cloud free sky over the NC/VA border,' the National Weather Service in Charleston said on X, correcting the timeframe it had shared in an earlier post. Analysis of satellite-based lightning detection by CNN show additional signatures over the Atlanta area. Elsewhere in Georgia, dashcam video taken at approximately 12:30 p.m. in Forsyth shows a fireball descending to the ground. And in Newton County, the sheriff's office said it received a notification from the National Weather Service that it was likely a meteor, and 'more could possibly be on the way.' A Henry County, Georgia, resident reported that a 'rock' fell through their ceiling around the same time the fireball occurred, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. The object broke through the roof and ceiling before cracking the flooring inside the home. In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video shows a big flash of light falling through the sky Thursday. South Carolina's emergency management division told CNN it is monitoring the situation. Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, said she was driving home when she saw a 'big flash in the sky come down and disappear.' She first thought it was a meteor that 'almost looked like a firework,' Eckard told CNN Thursday. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing. A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a magnitude over -4, which is brighter than Venus, according to the American Meteor Society. Thursday's fireball reached a magnitude of around -14, the organization told CNN, which would make it brighter than the full moon. The brighter the fireball, the more rare the event is, according to the American Meteor Society. 'Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth's atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight,' the organization says. Thursday's fireball was a special type called a bolide that explodes in a bright terminal flash, according to the organization. Bolides happen several dozen times a year 'when our planet is impacted by asteroids too small to reach the ground but large enough to explode upon impact with Earth's atmosphere,' according to NASA. CNN has reached out to emergency management officials in North Carolina and Tennessee. The North American Aerospace Defense Command directed questions to NASA. CNN has reached out to NASA.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Fireball spotted over Southeast US may have been caused by meteor
A rarely seen daytime fireball that may have been dropped by a meteor was spotted across the Southeast on Thursday — creating a sonic boom that blared through the region. The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on Thursday afternoon, its website shows. The reports came during the Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level meteor shower that is ongoing this week, according to an American Meteor Society list. 'It looks to be a 'daytime fireball' that caused a sonic boom. This is usually indicative of a (meteor) dropping a fireball, but not always,' Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, told CNN. Seeing a daytime fireball is a rare occurrence: Fireballs are easier to view at night, but have to be much brighter to be visible during the day, the American Meteor Society says. It's also 'quite rare' for sonic booms to be heard on the ground when a fireball occurs, according to the organization. It remains unclear how many fireballs fell and whether they hit the ground. Between 11:51 to 11:56 a.m. Thursday, satellite-based lighting detection showed 'a streak within cloud free sky over the NC/VA border,' the National Weather Service in Charleston said on X, correcting the timeframe it had shared in an earlier post. Analysis of satellite-based lightning detection by CNN show additional signatures over the Atlanta area. Elsewhere in Georgia, dashcam video taken at approximately 12:30 p.m. in Forsyth shows a fireball descending to the ground. And in Newton County, the sheriff's office said it received a notification from the National Weather Service that it was likely a meteor, and 'more could possibly be on the way.' In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video shows a big flash of light falling through the sky Thursday. South Carolina's emergency management division told CNN it is monitoring the situation. Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, said she was driving home when she saw a 'big flash in the sky come down and disappear.' She first thought it was a meteor that 'almost looked like a firework,' Eckard told CNN Thursday. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing. A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a magnitude over -4, which is brighter than Venus, according to the American Meteor Society. Thursday's fireball reached a magnitude of around -14, the organization told CNN, which would make it brighter than the full moon. The brighter the fireball, the more rare the event is, according to the American Meteor Society. 'Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth's atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight,' the organization says. Thursday's fireball was a special type called a bolide that explodes in a bright terminal flash, according to the organization. Bolides happen several dozen times a year 'when our planet is impacted by asteroids too small to reach the ground but large enough to explode upon impact with Earth's atmosphere,' according to NASA. CNN has reached out to emergency management officials in North Carolina and Tennessee. The North American Aerospace Defense Command directed questions to NASA. CNN has reached out to NASA.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Fireball spotted over Southeast US may have been caused by meteor, American Meteor Society says
The American Meteor Society has received numerous reports of a fireball over the US Southeast on Thursday afternoon – reports that are logged on its website. 'It looks to be a 'daytime fireball' that caused a sonic boom. This is usually indicative of a (meteor) dropping a fireball, but not always,' Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, told CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration told CNN that there was no unusual aircraft activity in the area. 'Satellite-based lighting detection show a streak within cloud free sky over the NC/VA border,' the National Weather Service in Charleston said on X. 'This streak was detected between 12:51 to 12:56 p.m.,' NWS added. Analysis of satellite-based lightning detection by CNN show additional signatures over the Atlanta area. Dashcam video taken at approximately 12:30 p.m. in Forsyth, Georgia, shows a fireball descending to the ground. In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video shows a big flash of light falling through the sky Thursday. South Carolina's emergency management division told CNN it is monitoring the situation. Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, said she was driving home when she saw a 'big flash in the sky come down and disappear.' She first thought it was a meteor which 'almost looked like a firework,' Eckard told CNN Thursday. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing. The Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level meteor shower, is ongoing this week, according to an American Meteor Society list. Fireballs are easier to view at night, but have to be much brighter to be visible during the day, meteorologists say. CNN has reached out to emergency management officials in North Carolina and Tennessee. The North American Aerospace Defense Command directed questions to NASA. CNN has reached out to NASA.
Axios
9 hours ago
- Science
- Axios
That loud boom over the Southeast? It was likely a fireball
Thursday's loud, rolling rumble — and, for some, a sudden flash and white streak in the sky — might have been a fireball from a meteor passing over metro Atlanta. Why it matters: More than 100 people from Georgia and parts of South Carolina and Florida reported to the American Meteor Society a potential fireball around 12:30pm. Driving the news: Mike Hankey, operations manager at the American Meteor Society (AMS), told Axios that metro Atlantans likely experienced a "daytime fireball" that caused a sonic boom. "This is usually indicative of a meteorite dropping a fireball, but not always," Hankey said. AMS is NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies' recommended organization for reporting fireballs. Catch up quick: Around 12:30pm on Thursday, people using social media across metro Atlanta reported what felt and sounded like a repeat of May's earthquake in Tennessee, felt as far south as Middle Georgia. However, the U.S. Geological Survey's earthquake monitor showed no nearby seismic activity. Yes, but: According to atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci, what appeared to be a meteor passed over Atlanta's east side, exploded and possibly scattered fragments in South Carolina. WSB-TV chief meteorologist Brad Nitz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the spectacle was probably "rock, dust, or debris from a comet's trail that enters the [Earth's] atmosphere." "The friction creates heat and we can see it burn up in the sky." Stunning stat: Meteor events occur probably once a week, Hankey said. But meteor events on Thursday's scale are rare, likely happening 10 to 20 times a year globally. "For the U.S., we might get three to five like this each year." The intrigue: Roughly 10 meteorites are recovered every year, but most go unfound. By the numbers: People have found 28 "unique and classified" meteorites in Georgia, according to Hankey.
New York Times
11 hours ago
- Science
- New York Times
Mysterious Fire Ball Reported Over South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee
From Georgia to South Carolina and Tennessee, a mysterious flaming object could be seen streaking the sky on Thursday afternoon, leaving a trail of exhaust in its wake, and then dramatically plunking toward the ground. Scientists, meteorologists and even law enforcement officials in those states were working to figure out what had caught the attention of drivers and observers in such a wide swath of the South. The sightings prompted hundreds of calls to the authorities. It was not clear if it was a meteorite, space debris or something else. There were about 130 reports of fireball sightings in 20 states, according to the American Meteor Society, beginning just after noon. It was not clear how many of those were related to the event seen on videos circulating on Thursday. In Georgia and South Carolina, observers even called 911 to report the flying object, according to local news outlets. 'It looks to be a 'daytime fireball' that caused a sonic boom,' said Mike Hankey, the operations manager at the American Meteor Society. 'This is usually indicative of a meteorite dropping a fireball, but not always.' A fireball is a very bright meteor — generally brighter than the planet Venus — in the morning or evening sky, according to the American Meteor Society. The National Weather Service office in Charleston said on its social media page that while it was 'not certain' what the object was, its satellite-based lightning detection system showed 'a streak within cloud free sky' over the border between North Carolina and Virginia, over Gasburg, Va. The office said the streak was detected between 11:51 a.m. and 11:56 a.m. local time. The object does not appear to have been a meteorite, or a solid piece of space debris, said Doug Outlaw, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C. 'Whatever traveled through the sky, it remains a mystery,' Mr. Outlaw said. The Federal Aviation Administration in a statement said 'we have no reports of unusual aircraft activity in the area.' An estimated 40 to 100 tons of space material strike Earth every day, and most of it is very small particles, according to the European Space Agency.
