(WDNews) NASA has confirmed that the bright fireball that was observed speeding across the sky over Metro Atlanta and a large portion of the Southeast on Thursday night was a meteor that broke apart high above Newton County, Georgia.
The meteor was initially observed 48 miles above Oxford, Georgia, at 12:25 p.m. ET. A tremendous shockwave was created as it exploded in midair, some 27 miles over West Forest, after traveling southwest at 30,000 miles per hour.
After the explosion, residents in South Carolina and Georgia reported hearing tremendous bangs. According to NASA, the space rock emitted energy equivalent to around 20 tons of TNT and weighed more than a ton.
It’s possible that this fireball during the day was a component of the Beta Taurid meteor shower, which usually peaks in late June.
