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Henry County Emergency Management reported a piece of meteorite fell through someone’s roof.

ATLANTA — Reports of a “fireball” sighting from the sky on Thursday afternoon have come in from across metro Atlanta and the broader Southeast U.S.

It was described by experts from the American Meteor Society as a bolide, a large and rare fireball that creates a sonic boom.

Sightings have come from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. The National Weather Service station in Charleston noted the reports, saying that “satellite-based lightning detection shows a streak within cloud free sky over the NC/VA border, over Gasbury, VA.”

The International Meteor Organization website shows reports for the event at 12:25 p.m. ET.

Henry County Emergency Management reported a piece of meteorite fell through someone’s roof. Photos showed a hole of about an inch in diameter in the roof.

It’s unclear if there were perhaps multiple remnants of the same bolide accounting for the wide geographic zone of sightings.

What is a bolide? What is a fireball?

The NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies further defines bolides as “exceptionally bright meteors that are spectacular enough to to be seen over a very wide area.”

“They are moving very fast and when they hit Earth’s atmosphere they could be going 50,000 MPH or faster, but they quickly decelerate and by the time they come and, and, you know, like they stop all their cosmic velocity at like 20,000 or 30,000 feet up, and by the time they hit your roof, they’re going about the speed of a golf ball or maybe a little bit faster,” said Mike Hankey, operations manager of the American Meteor Society.

“So still hundreds of miles an hour, but a far cry from the 50,000 miles an hour. You don’t want to get hit by one. They can cause a lot of harm, damages, they’ll go through multiple floors of a home oftentimes, but believe it or not, it is a blessing to have your home hit by a meteorite, because it’s a very rare thing to happen as long as no one’s hurt in the process,” Hankey said.

You can report a fireball sighting to American Meteor Society here.

More observations Thursday

Rockdale County relayed reports of people hearing a “loud sound like a boom” and houses shaking. City of Roswell Fire and the Newton County Sheriff’s Office have relayed reports. The National Weather Service Peachtree City office also said it received reports of people concerned about a possible earthquake due to the ground 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.

11Alive’s Cody Alcorn reports that additional sightings have come in from South Carolina and Tennessee.

VIDEO | This was just sent to me taken from a dash camera on I-85 SB in Upstate South Carolina pic.twitter.com/49PvNsorAK — Cody Alcorn (@CodyAlcorn) June 26, 2025

VIDEO | This was the view from Greenwood, South Carolina showing the object falling out of the sky. Getting reports of sightings out of Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. @11AliveNews pic.twitter.com/o7JhgD2Hr6 — Cody Alcorn (@CodyAlcorn) June 26, 2025

Josh Grant, as he was driving on I-75 below Buc-ee’s around 12:24 p.m. near Warner Robins, Georgia, told 11Alive’s sister station in Macon WMAZ that he saw it.

11Alive’s sister station in Columbia, S.C., WLTX, also obtained dashcam video.

Another video of the fireball.

William Jackson – “As seen from Hwy 378 approaching Lexington. Caught on my dash cam.” #fireball pic.twitter.com/k5QeG0KqYE — Daniel Bonds (@Daniel_Bonds) June 26, 2025

Lots of reports of a fireball being spotted across the Southeast. One of our WLTX weather watchers got this video.

John Eckard – “I’m not sure if anyone else saw what my wife saw. Looking down Two Notch Road towards Gilbert at Smith Pond Road. About 12:30 Thursday.” #fireball pic.twitter.com/SFGywYSnZi — Daniel Bonds (@Daniel_Bonds) June 26, 2025

A number of people also responded to 11Alive Meteorologist Melissa Nord on Facebook relaying their sightings. Those responses came from areas ranging from Riverdale to Suwanee to Covington to Snellville to north Georgia areas such as Ball Ground and Calhoun.

One commenter said her house shook in Flovilla, Georgia. Another said she heard it in Griffin and thought there was an earthquake. A commenter in Stone Mountain said it made a “booming sound, house shook with a long rumble.”

“Dogs went crazy,” the commenter added.

We’re getting reports of a fireball over Georgia between 12:25 and 12:40 pm today — followed by a loud boom and shake. Did you see it? Hear it? Did you house shake? We’re working to get confirmation. Posted by Melissa Nord on Thursday, June 26, 2025

Michigan ranks 10th historically in UFO reports.

On March 25, an object was spotted near Dundee and Petersburg.

Some common objects are often mistaken for a UFO.

An object hovering over Green Cove Springs, Florida, March 22 left many wondering whether extraterrestrial aliens had decided to join the spring break crowd.

OK, maybe aliens weren’t looking for a week of fun in the Sunshine State, but there was plenty of speculation about the object.

On the night of March 25, two people in Michigan reported seeing a strange, fast-moving, airborne object near Dundee and Petersburg, about halfway between Monroe and Adrian. One person was driving on West Ida Road near Summerfield High School when they reported seeing a “a bright LED light to my left” flying through the sky.

“There was a green light on the bottom and this object was flying very fast to the west,” the report to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) said. “I got to look at it for a couple seconds, but it was gone within seconds.”

The sighting happened at 8:42 p.m. and lasted about 20 seconds. The object was larger than an airplane, the report said.

The other person saw a similar object at 8:44 p.m. while driving southwest on Petersburg Road. The object was twice the size of an airplane and was reported to be moving at more than 1,000 mph. It “appeared in the middle of the sky, extremely bright led like lights, flew to the right extremely fast until it disappeared. No sound,” the report to the NUFORC said.

“Flew faster than any plane or other aircraft I have seen,” the person reported.

Is Michigan a UFO hotspot? Here’s what to know about recent sightings.

UFO sightings in Michigan in 2025

Historically, Michigan ranks 10th in the U.S. for reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) to NUFORC with 3,794 since an incident in 1936. That’s just 24 behind North Carolina for ninth place. California ranks first, with 16,735. That is almost twice as many as the second-place state, Florida, which has 8,624 reported sightings.

So far in 2025, Michigan has had 11 sightings, from Au Train in the Upper Peninsula along the Lake Superior to Cassopolis in Southwest Michigan. Some of them are suspected to be drones.

➤ See map of sightings

Not every sighting is reported to the NUFORC. A search of X, formerly Twitter, for references to UFOs or UAPs in Michigan showed a few sightings in 2025 that are not in the NUFORC database. Most did not give an exact location in Michigan.

Where does Michigan fit into UFO history?

Multiple UFO sightings in southern Michigan made headlines in 1966 and led to the “swamp gas” explanation from the government.

On the night of March 20, 1966, near Dexter in Washtenaw County, Frank Mannor and his teenage son saw some lights outside their farmhouse and watched as an object appeared to land nearby and then hover over a marshy area, according to the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

Other objects had been seen on March 14 and March 16 by others including Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies, according to an Ann Arbor News article archived by the Ann Arbor District Library.

The next night, March 21, 1966, Hillsdale College students reported seeing an unusual, aerial object between 9-10 p.m., according to the Hillsdale Historical Society. The women in MacIntyre Residence at Hillsdale College saw flashing lights hovering over the college’s Slayton Arboretum and called Hillsdale County’s civil defense director, William “Bud” VanHorn. He told them to continue to observe the object and to call again if it didn’t disappear. It didn’t, so they called, and VanHorn summoned a Hillsdale police car and two Michigan State Police units, then went to the dorm himself.

The women took VanHorn to the second-floor window through which they’d seen the lights.

“There they were, rising to a point just below the airport beacon and then settling down to earth again,” the Historical Society’s article said. “Word spread quickly — even without social media — and about 150 people observed the phenomenon. Saucer fever infected Hillsdale in the days that followed the newspaper report of the incident. Hundreds of people cruised the streets of Hillsdale hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious lights, and police were kept busy chasing down leads phoned in by the ‘saucer watchers.'”

Other reports of UFOs came in from near Monroe, in Lima Township in Washtenaw County and south into the Sylvania, Ohio, area. The reports brought J. Allen Hynek, an astrophysicist from Northwestern University and the director of the federal government’s Project Blue Book, to Michigan to examine the claims. At a news conference on March 25, 1966, he said the Mannor and Hillsdale sightings were caused by gases from rotting vegetation in lowland areas that had been released during the spring thaw — aka “swamp gases.”

“A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer space,” Hynek said at the time.

Hynek also said photos taken by a police officer were just “trails made as a result of a camera time exposure of the rising crescent moon … and the planet Venus.”

The public and Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey weren’t buying the explanation.

“With all due respect to Dr. Hynek,” Harvey told the Ann Arbor News, “I’m not ready to accept this weak excuse of gas from marshes.”

Over time, Hynek came to accept that the people reporting these sightings were not crazy or hallucinating. Former Monroe News reporter Bobb Vergiels recalled interviewing Hynek in the 1980s during a visit to Monroe County Community College.

“One of the quotations from Hynek at MCCC that night still echoes in my memory — ‘UFOs are incredible tales, told by credible people,'” Vergiels wrote.

How likely is Michigan to survive an alien invasion?

The website GIGAcalculator, which provides several online calculators, recently used a variety of factors to determine which states have the best odds of surviving an alien invasion. It used data such as population; UFO sightings per capita; number of caves; amount of land covered by forests or water; the number of military and law enforcement personnel per 1,000 people; the number of scientists, engineers and health care professionals; and the number of food and beverage manufacturing companies.

Virginia was determined to be the state most likely to survive an alien invasion, followed by Alabama and Massachusetts. Michigan came in 17th, ranking between two other Great Lakes states, Illinois and Ohio. Michigan had the most engineers per 1,000 people, which shouldn’t be surprising with all of the automotive companies being here, but there are no caves to hide in. Michigan also ranked high in food and beverage companies.

What was the first UFO sighting in Michigan?

The earliest known UFO sighting in Michigan, according to the National UFO Reporting Center, was reported in 2006 but occurred on or about July 15, 1936, in Alma.

The person reported what seemed like a childhood nightmare at the time seems more like an alien encounter.

“The more I think of it the more it seems it was not a dream. It was the most frighting thing in my life,” the report said.

The person reported they were 4 or 5 years old when two or three creatures came into their bedroom through a wall. The creatures to the child to their “car,” which was a shiny, polished metal, like aluminum, and it was flat on top and curved on the bottom.

This happened about four more times, and as a preteen and teenager the person reported being prone to nosebleeds. During one nosebleed, a bullet-shaped object, about an inch long, came out of their nose.

“I am now 72 years old and have never spoke of this to anyone,” the person wrote. “Am I nuts or imagining some thing??”

How do I report a UFO sighting?

Anyone can report an unusual light, object or shape in the sky to the National UFO Reporting Center on its website or through its phone hotline, 206-722-3000. File a report directly.

Common objects mistaken for UFOs or UAPs

The center asks people to check out these objects commonly mistaken for UFOs:

Starlink satellites : If you see a line of lights, they are probably Starlink satellites.

: If you see a line of lights, they are probably Starlink satellites. Venus and Jupiter: If you are seeing a very bright, intensely silver-white, stationary object near the horizon, it is likely Venus, and not a UFO. Jupiter may appear higher in the sky but can also be extremely bright. Several apps are available to help identify planets.

If you are seeing a very bright, intensely silver-white, stationary object near the horizon, it is likely Venus, and not a UFO. Jupiter may appear higher in the sky but can also be extremely bright. Several apps are available to help identify planets. Visible in photos, videos but not naked eye: If you see something in a photo or video you took that you did not see with your naked eye, it’s probably a camera anomaly or artifact such as a lens flare.

If you see something in a photo or video you took that you did not see with your naked eye, it’s probably a camera anomaly or artifact such as a lens flare. Pulsating lights in video: Cellphone videos taken of lights in the night sky, planets or stars often appear to pulse, get brighter and dimmer, or appear as a “donut” or ring shape, due to the de-focusing and re-focusing of the phone’s lens.

What’s the difference between a UFO and a UAP?

UFO stands for “unidentified flying object,” a term for an aerial phenomenon whose cause or identity is unclear to the observer. The United States Air Force coined the term in 1952.

Today, the term UFO is colloquially used to refer to any unidentifiable sighting regardless of whether it has been investigated.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration uses the term “unidentified anomalous phenomena” to describe “observations of the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena.”

What is the National UFO Reporting Center?

Founded in 1974, the National UFO Reporting Center said its “primary function over the past five decades has been to receive, record, and to the greatest degree possible, corroborate and document reports from individuals who have been witness to unusual, possibly UFO-related events.

“Throughout its history, the Center has processed over 180,000 reports, and has distributed its information to thousands of individuals.”

The center noted it “makes no claims as to the validity of the information in any of these reports. Obvious hoaxes have been omitted, however most reports have been posted exactly as received in the author’s own words.”

Contributing: Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY; Dave Osborn, USA TODAY Network

A spiral of light illuminating the night sky captivated observers in Britain and much of Europe on Monday. Its cause: a SpaceX rocket, experts said, after the glowing spectacle ignited widespread curiosity and speculation about its origin.

The ethereal display, seen from England to Eastern Europe, resembled a glowing celestial whirlpool in images posted on social media, where users reported seeing it for several minutes before it faded.

The Met Office, Britain’s national weather service, said on social media late Monday: “We’ve received many reports of an illuminated swirl in the sky this evening. This is likely to be caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched earlier today.”

Prof. Brian Cox, a physicist at the University of Manchester, also confirmed the source of the light: “For everyone asking about the strange spiral shape in the sky earlier — it was associated with this launch,” he said on social media, referencing another post that showed footage of the rocket.

When pilot Kenneth Arnold took off from Chehalis, Washington, in his single-engine airplane one afternoon in June 1947, he was looking for a lost military aircraft that had crashed. But what he found was something completely different—something that would set off a cultural obsession in the U.S. that persists today.

While flying around Mount Rainier, Arnold reportedly encountered nine curious, wingless objects speeding through the sky at 1,200 mph, faster than any plane at the time could. Arnold spent years afterward trying to describe what he had seen, reportedly using a term that has been ingrained in the American lexicon ever since: “flying saucer.”

Since then, Americans have been uniquely fixated on the idea that aliens are somewhere in the sky above us—and the number who believe that to be true is growing. In 2019, a Gallup survey found that 33% of Americans believed some UFOs were alien spacecrafts, while 60% felt they could all be explained by human activity or some natural phenomenon. Just two years later, in 2021, 41% of respondents said they believed at least some UFOs were alien-related compared to 50% who were confident any sightings could be explained by human behavior or scientific events.

There are two main reasons that belief in aliens has become so prevalent in the United States: government hearings and pop culture.

America’s film industry has always been one of the most influential in the world, and a wave of science fiction films in the 1950s, like “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” perpetuated the idea that there are other life-forms out there. This continues today with alien-centric sci-fi staples like the “Avatar” franchise and the “Quiet Place” movies dominating the box office.

Rather than leave flying saucers to the domain of Hollywood, the U.S. government has addressed the question of UFOs, only adding further speculation. In April 2020, the Department of Defense released multiple videos filmed by military pilots that were thought to possibly capture UFOs. In July 2023, an Air Force veteran came forward to the House of Representatives claiming that the U.S. military has been keeping important information on “nonhuman” sightings secret since the 1930s.

Just like it did in the 1950s amid Cold War paranoia, the lore of UFOs is also currently experiencing a resurgence as many Americans grow concerned about national security. The infamous Chinese spy balloon panic in 2023 and fears over being infiltrated by the Russian government have led to many reporting seeing UFOs in the sky. People are also mistaking the spike in Starlink satellites for extraterrestrial activity. In November 2024, the Pentagon announced that most reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs, as they’re now known) can be attributed to balloons, drones, and other regular objects, while still noting that many objects lack a sufficient explanation.

UAP and UFO sightings in the U.S. are particularly concentrated in the West, partially because of the abundance of dark sky locations, where it’s easier to spot objects with less light pollution. Those who believe they’ve seen something otherworldly can report it to the National UFO Reporting Center, which relies on volunteers to separate fact from fiction.

While New Mexico and Nevada are perhaps best known for UFO sightings, the National UFO Reporting Center data shows that the state with the most sightings is California, with more than 16,500 reports as of April 25, 2025. But what do the numbers look like in your metro area?

Stacker compiled a ranking of cities with the most UFO sightings in North Carolina using data from the National UFO Reporting Center. Data encompasses all reports of UFO sightings dating back to 1995. Sightings with locations listed across multiple cities were not included in this analysis.

For now, the U.S. government’s official stance is that extraterrestrial life does not exist. But if the last century is any indicator, that will do little to curb America’s alien obsession.

Note: The images in this article are stock photos and do not necessarily depict the specific cities or events described listed.

We had a listener reach out and share a photo from a UFO they saw over the Northland. Over the years, we’ve had quite a few people report unusual objects in the sky. I’ve interviewed quite a few folks who swear what they saw was real and unexplained.

UFO Sightings Common In Northeast Minnesota

Things that stick out the most are the irrelevant details in the UFO stories. It’s the little anecdotal things that witnesses will include in their stories that make it believable. Why else would they mention an irrelevant detail, like I saw it because I was crossing the street to get a soda, and then I looked up and saw this thing in the sky?

Read More: Huge Round Oscillating UFO Spotted Over North Shore

I had a woman contact me and tell me her story of a huge, round oscillating UFO on the North Shore. She thought her neighbor was shooting off fireworks. She went to the window to see what was going on when she saw the huge UFO.

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UFO Reported Over Rural Duluth

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The most recent report we’ve become aware of is a sighting that took place in December. It was sent to me this week, and it shows a bizarre light in the sky. It glows, almost like it’s on fire. Most UFO reports across the world deal with glowing orbs. Some describe the surface of the orbs as looking like the rolling flames of the sun.

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The witness said the glowing light was in the air for 10 minutes before he took the picture. Once he took the picture, the object disappeared immediately. This may sound like a coincidence, but it is common for these unidentified objects to disappear after they’ve been seen or recorded.

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Could It Be Something From The Airbase?

The 148th Air National Guard is in that vicinity. Could it be a flare? If it were a fighter jet, and it was that close, you would definitely hear the rumble.

Other Reported UFO Sightings In Same Time Period

There were other reports of UFOs around Duluth in the same time frame. December 18th was an active day with 2 sightings in Duluth and 2 in Minneapolis. All of them were orbs or dots in the sky.