The fireball was bright enough to be seen by instruments aboard NOAA’s GOES-19 Earth observation satellite.

A large meteor that triggered a spectacular daytime fireball over the southeastern U.S. may have survived its dramatic passage through Earth’s atmosphere to punch through the roof of a Georgia home.

A fireball, or a bright meteorite, was seen across the southeastern United States on Thursday and later exploded over Georgia, creating booms heard by residents in the area, according to NASA.The American Meteor Society said it received more than 160 reports of a fireball… pic.twitter.com/c7yBQjAQanJune 27, 2025

The fireball was spotted over the southeastern U.S. at 12:25 EDT on Friday, (1625 GMT), visibly flaring as the extreme heat of atmospheric friction overwhelmed the ancient chunk of solar system debris. Its descent was bright enough to be seen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAAs) GOES-19 Earth observation satellite, using an instrument designed to map flashes of lightning from orbit.

There have been many reports of a #fireball streaking across the southeastern U.S. this afternoon! The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (#GLM) on @NOAA’s #GOES satellites can occasionally detect these bright meteors (aka #bolides) when they pass through the atmosphere. See the… pic.twitter.com/SeODhBdYiKJune 26, 2025

“Daylight fireballs are rare in that it takes a large object (larger than a beachball compared to your normal pea-sized meteor) to be bright enough to be seen during the day,” said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Association in an email to Space.com. “We probably only average one per month worldwide, so perhaps one out of every 3,000 reports occurs during the day.”

The meteor was first spotted 48 miles (77 kilometers) above the town of Oxford, Georgia travelling at around 30,000 mph (48,000 km/h), according to NASA Meteoroid Environment Office lead Bill Cooke, via CBS News. Lunsford noted that the fireball may have been associated with the daylight beta Taurid shower, which peaks in late June as Earth passes through the trail of cosmic debris shed by the ancient solar system comet 2P/Encke.

“…the photograph of the hole in the roof is probably associated with this fireball.”

Footage of the event led many to speculate that fragments of the meteor may have survived its bruising passage through Earth’s atmosphere. The hours that followed saw photos circulate online purporting to show the damage that a fragment of the meteorite caused when it smashed through the roof of a home in Henry County, Georgia.

The fireball was seen from several states across the southeastern U.S. (Image credit: © Brannon H.)

“Being much larger than your average meteor also means that it has a better chance of producing fragments on the ground,” explained Lunsford “We look for reports of sound such as thunder or sonic booms to have confidence that fragments of the original fireball survived down to the lower atmosphere and perhaps all the way to the ground. Therefore the photograph of the hole in the roof is probably associated with this fireball.”

Here’s the hole an apparent meteorite made in one Henry County home, and what landed on floor. We’re covering this story live on Channel 2. pic.twitter.com/eBc6GtrvEkJune 26, 2025

If verified, the Georgia meteorite certainly wouldn’t represent the first time that a daylight beta Daylight Taurid left a mark on our planet. Lunsford noted that a particularly large meteor that some scientists believe to be associated with the annual shower detonated in a powerful airburst 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) over Russian Siberia in June 1908. The force of the explosion sparked massive forest fires and flattened roughly 80 million trees in what has since become known as the ‘Tunguska Event’.

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Editor’s Note: If you capture a photo or video footage of a meteor and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please send it, along with your name, comments, and details of your experience to spacephotos@space.com.

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 200 people across a half-dozen southern U.S. states have now reported witnessing a mysterious object streak across the sky on Thursday, and the nation’s space agency now believes it was a remarkably bright meteor known as a bolide.

Most sightings of the streak of light and fireball came from Georgia and South Carolina around 12:30 p.m., according to a report from the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Georgia.

Here’s what to know about the object:

Pieces of meteor believed to be on ground in Georgia

NASA determined that it was about the size of a shopping cart as it streaked through the sky. Scientists were able to track the meteor’s path after analyzing eyewitness accounts, images from cameras and data from satellites and weather radar.

The meteor was first spotted over Oxford, Georgia, as it moved southwest across the sky, according to Bill Cooke, a scientist at NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Alabama.

It broke apart over the small community of West Forest, Georgia, “unleashing an energy of about 20 tons of TNT,” Cooke said in a statement. That created booms heard by many residents in the area.

The meteor falling to the ground was detected by multiple weather radars, and many meteorites are believed to be on the ground in the Blacksville, Georgia area, NASA said.

People express amazement in witness accounts

As of Friday afternoon, at least 215 reports of the object have poured into the American Meteor Society with many people expressing wonder and amazement in their reports.

“It was a bright fireball,” a woman in Bethlehem, Georgia, wrote.

“It did have a bright tail that disappeared with it, and left behind a smoke trail,” she added. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

A man in Milledgeville, Georgia, reported that “I believe it hit the ground.”

The roof of a Georgia home is pierced

A resident of Henry County, Georgia, reported a rock coming through their roof around the time they heard the sonic boom from the fireball. It left behind a hole in the ceiling about the size of a golf ball and a crack in a laminate floor at the home southeast of Atlanta, according to the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Georgia.

“We are presuming that a piece of the object fell through their roof,” the weather service said in a brief statement on social media.

Dashboard and doorbell cameras across several states in the southeastern U.S. states caught glimpses of the fireball that appeared to be plummeting straight down.

Broad daylight sighting is rare

Meteors and other space debris frequently enter Earth’s atmosphere, but it is rare for an object to be so bright it can easily be seen in broad daylight. Videos of the event showed clear skies on Thursday, allowing many to see the meteor falling.

“First time to ever see an event in daylight like this,” a man in Cumming, Georgia, north of Atlanta, said in his report to the meteor society.

“It was so bright in the middle of the day… brighter than the sun,” a woman in Dublin, Georgia reported.

Bright fireballs are caused by friction as an object enters the atmosphere and slows down considerably. Almost all objects break into minuscule pieces before striking the ground, according to NASA.

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Henry County Emergency Management said a resident claimed a rock went through the roof into their home on Thursday.

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HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — People are still in awe after seeing what many described as a “fireball” light up the sky Thursday across several states, including right here in Georgia.

And one Henry County resident let officials know they believe a piece of the meteorite may have pierced their home.

11Alive received photos from Henry County Emergency Management showing the damage, where a hole has been punctured through the roof.

(This story continues below the gallery.)

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The EMA said its office received a call from a resident claiming a rock flew through the roof, believing it was associated with the meteor.

In a social media post Thursday, the National Weather Service in Peachtree City said, “We are presuming that a piece of the object fell through their roof.”

Some people in Georgia reported hearing a “loud sound like a boom” and houses shaking. McDonough resident Mike Dozier said his home shook during the ordeal, most likely from the sonic boom caused by the fireball.

“When the house started to shake and I started to hear the loud rumbling, I just told [my mom] to hold on a minute, something is going on here and I don’t know what it is… it seemed to last about 15 seconds and it was over,” he said.

The NWS Peachtree City office also said it received reports of people concerned about a possible earthquake due to the ground shaking.

In Athens, Pastors David and Diane Lester were on their way to church when they saw the sky light up.

“You know, by being spiritual minded, is this that day?” David Lester said jokingly. “Seeing that, knowing with a spiritual mindset, I’m thinking this is the last day.”

Meteors and other space debris frequently enter Earth’s atmosphere, but it is rare for an object to be so bright it can easily be seen in broad daylight.

Videos of the event showed clear skies on Thursday, allowing many to see the meteor falling.

That’s when those around him began to speculate it was a possible meteor.

“(It looked like) a really huge firework, and then it just disappeared. We didn’t hear any bang or see any smoke or nothing,” Williams, 39, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, described the event to the AJC as a meteor first seen shortly after noon about 48 miles above Oxford in Newton County. He said it traveled southwest at 30,000 mph.

It disintegrated 27 miles above West Forest, which is about a 25-minute drive from Oxford, and unleashed “an energy of about 20 tons of TNT,” he added.

Anna, from Dawsonville, Ga., spotted the meteor many reported to see Thursday afternoon across Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. ➡️ https://t.co/hWqYOoKVqm

Did you see it?

📽️: Anna Sparks pic.twitter.com/Njg0CHC6Lr — Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) June 27, 2025

The American Meteor Society received about 100 reports of fireball sightings from across Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. Most of the reports were in Georgia, according to its website.

Dylan Lusk, a senior meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Peachtree City, said the object created a fireball and sonic boom as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We’ve had a lot of people who are reporting hearing a loud boom and then also feeling shaking, like their home shaking, or their window shaking,” Lusk said. “So that was likely a byproduct of whatever this was entering the atmosphere.”

The fireball was produced by “an asteroidal fragment,” Cooke said, that measured 3-feet in diameter and weighed more than a ton.

According to the meteor society, a fireball is just a term for a bright meteor. Several thousand of them occur in the atmosphere every day, but they often go unnoticed as they travel over oceans and uninhabited areas. Vivid colors are also often reported by observers and may be influenced by the composition of the meteoroid, the group said.

There have been many reports of a #fireball streaking across the southeastern U.S. this afternoon! The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (#GLM) on @NOAA’s #GOES satellites can occasionally detect these bright meteors (aka #bolides) when they pass through the atmosphere.

See the… pic.twitter.com/SeODhBdYiK — NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) June 26, 2025

The NWS in Charleston, South Carolina, said on X that “satellite-based lightning detection shows a streak within cloud-free sky” near the North Carolina and Virginia border, visible on the NOAA satellites.

The NWS reported it was “likely a meteor, and they believe more could possibly be on the way,” the Newton County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook.

Lusk said the Weather Service received an unconfirmed report of possible bits crashing into someone’s home in Henry County around the time the fireball was spotted. According to NASA’s website, there was a probable meteorite fall near Blackville, which is about 2.5 miles south of McDonough in Henry.

Molly Porter, a spokesperson for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama said, “meteorites are smaller ‘rocks’ from the meteor that reach the ground.”

Henry County’s fire department confirmed to the AJC they did not respond to any related calls.

Most of the object likely “burned up in the atmosphere,” Lusk said.

“The chances of something making it to the ground are usually pretty low. Usually, it’s going to burn up as it moves through the atmosphere with the speed that it’s coming in,” he added.

But during Thursday’s event, Porter said multiple Doppler weather radars detected the signatures of meteorites falling to the ground.

There are reports from across metro Atlanta of a probable meteor. A meteor is 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. This is likely what just happened here. pic.twitter.com/46ZJvgqGMv — Brad Nitz (@BradNitzWSB) June 26, 2025

Calls flooded into the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville from residents intrigued by the bright streak, museum marketing associate Lauren Rhodes told the AJC.

In 2009, a similar sonic boom was heard by neighbors as a meteorite crashed and tore a hole into a roof and ceiling of a Cartersville home. No one was at the residence at the time. But the homeowner returned to find the 297-gram meteorite on the floor of the house and contacted the museum.

“It just so happened that Tellus had opened just months prior, and they knew that we had the mineral collection and that we also had astronomy and space items, and they reached out to the museum, and we acquired it,” Rhodes said.

The museum now has the meteorite on display at the Weinman Mineral Gallery, which features exhibits of some of the state’s most prized minerals.

At the time, it was only the 25th meteorite found in the state.

Rhodes said the museum has a fireball camera on its roof, and she hopes it captured Thursday’s event. The camera doesn’t report in real time, so they plan to look Friday morning once the data is processed.

“We’ve had people calling us about it,” she said. “It’s not guaranteed that we caught anything on it … so crossing our fingers.”

The Brief NASA confirmed a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere over Georgia, disintegrating with energy equivalent to 20 tons of TNT and causing loud booms and tremors. The meteor triggered lightning sensors on NOAA’s GOES satellites, and Doppler radar detected falling debris, with reports of meteorite fragments found. A home in Henry County, Georgia, was struck by unusual debris, possibly linked to the meteor, causing damage but no injuries.

A massive fireball that streaked across the southeastern U.S. sky in broad daylight Thursday has been confirmed by NASA as a meteor, with evidence suggesting it broke apart high above Georgia and may have sent debris crashing to the ground.

20 tons of TNT

What we know:

NASA says the meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere at 12:25 p.m. EDT on June 26, first appearing 48 miles above Oxford, Georgia. Traveling southwest at an estimated 30,000 miles per hour, the object disintegrated at an altitude of 27 miles above West Forest, unleashing energy equivalent to about 20 tons of TNT.

NASA released this image showing a composite of five different radar sources of the space debris from a meteor on June 26, 2025. (NASA)

The breakup produced a powerful pressure wave that reached the ground, creating loud booms and tremors that startled residents. According to NASA, “some large windows may have vibrated or even cracked.” The fireball was caused by an asteroidal fragment approximately three feet in diameter and weighing over a ton.

Its entry was so intense that it triggered the Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLM) aboard NOAA’s GOES satellites—devices normally used to detect lightning. Doppler radar also picked up falling debris, and the agency has received reports of meteorite fragments being found.

Lightning sensors on multiple NOAA GOES weather satellites pick up a fireball over Georgia on June 26, 2025.

Witnesses across Georgia and neighboring states—including as far south as Macon and as far north as Upstate South Carolina—reported seeing a flash of white light followed by what many described as an “earthquake.” However, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed no seismic activity occurred. Officials say the shaking was the result of a sonic boom.

Atlanta meteorite?

Local perspective:

Doorbell camera footage captured a fiery streak in the early afternoon sky, and a Rockdale County official shared video appearing to show a burning object falling to earth.

One of the most dramatic incidents occurred in Henry County, just south of Atlanta, where emergency officials are investigating whether a meteorite may have struck a home in McDonough. The Henry County Emergency Management Agency confirmed a resident reported a rock crashing through their roof and ceiling, cracking the laminate flooring before coming to rest inside the home.

Radar images suggest debris may have fallen in the area of Blacksville, Georgia, near a Home Depot distribution center along Highway 20.

No injuries were reported.

Fireball seen across Southeast

Big picture view:

FOX Weather reports that the American Meteor Society received over 100 sightings related to the fireball. The National Weather Service in Charleston confirmed the GLM detected a streak over the NC/VA border, and officials in Anderson County, South Carolina, are investigating a potential crash site.

WHNS reports that officials in Anderson County, South Carolina are looking for a possible crash site in the Upstate region of the state.

The South Carolina news source said reports have been made in Spartanburg County, Greenville County and Anderson County.

Georgia meteor fell in Henry County

What they’re saying:

The Henry County Emergency Management Agency director confirmed that an object caused damage to a home in the McDonough area, not far from Blacksville.

“Although I can’t confirm this is from a meteor, there is unusual damage to the home,” the director said. “A piece of debris entered through the shingles and made it through the ceiling and hit the floor.”

The EMA is continuing to assess the situation.

Image 1 of 7 ▼ The Henry County Emergency Management Agency reports a home was struck by unusual debris which could be linked to a fireball seen across the Southeast on June 26, 2025. (Henry County Emergency Management Agency)

“It was crazy. I keep replaying it in my head,” said Michelle Hartley, who saw the meteor in Calhoun. “I just happened to look up and I seen it coming down out of the sky like it was white, and the ball of it was like on fire. Like the part that is entering the atmosphere.”

Doorbell camera footage captured the blazing streak visible even in the early afternoon sun.

Michelle Hartley, who witnessed the meteor from Calhoun, Georgia, described the scene as surreal.

“I just happened to look up and I seen it coming down out of the sky like it was white, and the ball of it was like on fire,” she said. “It was crazy. I keep replaying it in my head.”

The exact origin of the object and whether meteorite fragments caused structural damage remain under investigation.

FOX 5 viewer Garrett Thrift took a photo of the fireball seen in the sky across metro Atlanta. (Credit: Garrett Thrift)

Meteorite in Georgia

Dig deeper:

Astrophysicist Alissa Bans, director of Emory University’s observatory, said the phenomenon was most likely a bolide—a term used for an exceptionally bright meteor that may explode upon entering Earth’s atmosphere.

“This likely had its origin, kind of, as an asteroid or a part of an asteroid,” Bans said. “That is pretty unusual… there are usually just a handful a year that reach that fireball class.”

“Luckily, most of the time, things burn up pretty easily in Earth’s atmosphere,” Bans noted.

What was the fire ball in the sky?

What we don’t know:

The investigation into the McDonough incident remains ongoing.

What you can do:

The origin of the object remain under investigation.