A resident south of Atlanta reported that a “rock” fell through the roof and then broke through the ceiling, cracking the home’s laminate flooring.

The rock is assumed to be remnants of a fireball seen June 26, 2025, streaking across the Southeast US.

What many witnessed recently was a very bright meteor known as a fireball, scientists say.

A bright object glimpsed streaking across the sky recently caused quite a bit of commotion as residents in Georgia and other southern states rushed to film a mysterious “fireball.”

Reports flooded the American Meteor Society of sightings Thursday, June 26, and scientists scrambled to determine just exactly what it was that caused the stir.

Meanwhile, one poor Georgian may have gotten a closer look at the object that most people saw from miles away after pieces of it possibly crashed through a home south of Atlanta.

So, what was it? Unsurprisingly, meteorologists and other scientists theorize it was almost certainly a meteor.

Did a meteor crash in Georgia?

Remnants of the cosmic object that was witnessed soaring across Georgia around 12:30 p.m. local time Thursday, June 26, may have broken off and plummeted through the roof of a home in Henry County, according to the the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

A resident in the county, located south of Atlanta, reported that a “rock” fell through the roof and then broke through the ceiling, cracking the home’s laminate flooring. Because the incident occurred around the time sightings were happening, “we are presuming that a piece of the object fell through their roof,” the weather service said in a post on Facebook.

What was the ‘fireball’ spotted over US?

The fireball that caught the attention of people across the Southeast U.S. is presumed to be from a meteor fragmenting in the sky, according to meteorologists and other experts.

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 that the space rock was about three feet in diameter and weighed more than one ton.

The USA TODAY Network left a message Friday, June 27, with the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Where was the ‘fireball’ meteorite seen in US?

The American Meteor Society received nearly 150 reports of a meteor bright enough to be seen streaking across the midday sky beginning around noon local time Thursday, June 26.

Some people also reported experiencing what they believed were earthquakes, which meteorologist have since clarified were sonic booms. The brief, thunder-like noises are often heard from the ground when spacecraft, aircraft or itinerant space rocks travel faster than the speed of sound.

Most of the reports were from Georgia and South Carolina, but a few witnessed the object in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina.

The National Weather Service office in Charleston said on Facebook that its satellite-based lightning detection system showed “a streak within cloud free sky” over Gasburg, Virginia, near the state’s border with North Carolina.

What is a fireball? How rare is a ‘fireball’ meteor?

Rocks in space are known as meteoroids. If those space rocks enter Earth’s atmosphere, they become meteors that streak across the sky in events colloquially referred to as “shooting stars.”

Meteors – or fragments of them – that survive their atmospheric trip and land on the surface without burning up become meteorites, according to NASA.

What many witnessed recently was a very bright meteor known as a fireball associated with the annual Bootid meteor shower. It’s relatively rare for fireballs to be sighted on Earth, especially during the daytime, as the objects generally have to be at least as bright as Venus to be visible to the naked eye, according to the American Meteor Society.

See video, photos of fireball shared on social media

Dashboard and doorbell cameras in the Southeast U.S. captured the fireball as it streaked across the sky.

Take a look:

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com