An Earth-grazing fireball (or Earth grazer) [2] is a fireball, a very bright meteor that enters Earth’s atmosphere and leaves again. Some fragments may impact Earth as meteorites, if the meteor starts to break up or explodes in mid-air. These phenomena are then called Earth-grazing meteor processions and bolides. [1]

We are currently investigating 42 reports about fireballs seen over Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Washington and Oregon.

A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a visual magnitude of -3 or brighter when seen at the observer’s zenith. Objects causing fireball events can exceed one meter in size. Fireballs that explode in the atmosphere are technically referred to as bolides although the terms fireballs and bolides are often used interchangeably.

Jan 21, 1999 · A fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky. A bolide is a special type of fireball which explodes in a bright terminal flash at its end, often with visible fragmentation.

Feb 22, 2024 · A glittering fireball ignited evening skies over vast sections of the eastern United States and parts of Canada on Wednesday night, as it entered earth's atmosphere and promptly burned up.

The following chart shows reported fireball events for which geographic location data are provided. Each event's calculated total impact energy is indicated by its relative size and by a color. Hover over an event to see its details.

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight.

Nov 14, 2024 · Cameras and NOAA weather satellites captured the moment when a meteor exploded into a brilliant fireball over the U.S. Midwest and parts of western Canada.

Oct 23, 2023 · The NASA All sky Fireball Network is a network of cameras set up by the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) with the goal of observing meteors brighter than the planet Venus, which are called fireballs.

Oct 23, 2024 · A fiery meteor shot across the sky above the Great Lakes on Monday (Oct. 21) just after sunset, stunning witnesses from Michigan to New York, Kentucky and North Carolina.