Rare daytime fireball bright enough to be seen from orbit may have punched a hole in a house in Georgia
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Rare daytime fireball bright enough to be seen from orbit may have punched a hole in a house in Georgia
The American Meteor Society said it received more than 160 reports of a fireball. 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) 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. 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. If you capture a photo or video of a meteor and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, send it along with your name, name, and details of your experience to spacepos@space.com. The American Meteor Association estimates that one out of every 3,000 reports occurs during the day.
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 ‘Tungaska 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.