Bright fireball over North Carolina – Virginia border region
Image credit: NASA/Skyfalls
A bright fireball streaked through the night sky over the North Carolina – Virginia border region at 01:30 UTC on June 26, 2024 (21:30 EDT on June 25).
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 132 reports from eyewitnesses in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
The meteor was also detected by a NASA meteor camera located at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in western North Carolina and several publicly accessible cameras in the region.
An analysis incorporating the available data indicated the meteor first became visible at an altitude of 77 km (48 miles) above the town of Allen Grove in northern North Carolina.
Traveling west of north at 51 500 km/h (32 000 mph) and descending at a steep angle of 53 degrees, the meteor managed to travel 64 km (40 miles) through the atmosphere.
It ultimately disintegrated at an altitude of 45 km (28 miles) above Roanoke Rapids Lake, located just south of the North Carolina/Virginia border.
References:
1 Fireball event 3116-2024 – AMS – June 26, 2024
2 Fireball over North Carolina/Virginia border last evening (June 25) around 9:30 PM local time – NASA Meteor Watch – June 26, 2024
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
I saw this in my yard with a few family members, at first we thought maybe it was a shooting star. But this was so bright you could see it pass through the tree line! Glad to see this article confirming it was a meteor, so cool!
Glad to see the article, first thought it was some type of fireworks but way to high in the sky. I saw this meteor while driving home in Northern Virginia area, Fairfax. Amazing this was over the Virginia/Carolina border, over 100 miles from me, very visible in the sky. Sorry we didn’t have a dash cam.