A fireball that streaked across the sky in the US state of Alabama on Friday has been confirmed by NASA as an asteroid that was “at least 40 times as bright as the Full Moon.”
“[Friday], at 12:19 AM Central Daylight Time, numerous eyewitnesses in the SouthEast reported seeing a very bright fireball, which was also detected by all six NASA meteor cameras in the region,” the statement from NASA’s Meteoroid Research Unit (MRU) said. NASA has now released a video of the bright, burning space object online.
NASA analysis shows that that the meteor was first seen at an altitude of 58 miles above Turkeytown, Alabama. The fireball then moved north west at a whopping 53,700 miles per hour. It then broke apart at roughly 18 miles above the small town of Grove Oak.
Security camera/doorbell camera video of last night's fireball over Alabama at 12:20a CT. From Jason Stricklin, Shannon Stephens, Barry Pender, and Chris Bruner. The meteor was 18 miles over East Alabama moving at 53,700 mph. It fragmented over Grove Oak, in DeKalb County. pic.twitter.com/TVhcqht0RE
— James Spann (@spann) August 17, 2018
Early results show that the small asteroid 6 feet in diameter. NASA added that they are unsure if the fireball made landfall, but the space organisation did say that the bright, burning space chunk triggered “every camera and sensor operated by the Meteoroid Environment Office in the region”.
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