Fireball blazing across the Texas sky

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Texans were surprised to see a fireball burning in the sky on Sunday night.

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According to the NASA Meteor Watch, the celestial scene passed just before 9 p.m. CT.

“Hundreds of eyewitnesses in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma said they saw a very bright fireball last night at 8:58 p.m. Central Daylight Time,” the agency said in a Facebook post on Monday. “An analysis of their reports, along with information gleaned from a few videos from public/amateur cameras, shows that the meteor was first seen 48 miles above Texas Highway 11, between Sulfur Springs and Winsboro. It is moving northeast at a speed of 30 thousand miles per hour, it traveled 59 miles through the upper atmosphere before splintering 27 miles above US 82 east of Avery.”

“The fireball was at least as bright as a quarter of the moon, which translates to something larger than 6 inches and weighing 10 pounds. The slow speed (relative to a meteorite) indicates that a small piece of an asteroid produced the fireball,” he added.

Hundreds of witness reports have been uploaded to the nonprofit American Meteor Society (AMS), including three videos and CBSDFW.com said Monday that others claimed they heard a “sound blast.”

Fireballs are a common occurrence, and NASA has software dedicated to tracking exceptionally bright meteors.

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LiveScience noted on Tuesday that thousands of small meteors strike Earth each year — though most hit an unpopulated area or fall into the ocean.

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