Have you ever wished on a shooting star?
Well, if you were in North Carolina last Friday, you might have had a chance to. According to NASA Meteor Watch, a fireball was caught on camera streaking over the state’s coastline at around 7:40 p.m.
In addition to this meteor, there were reports of at least five fireballs in the sky over the U.S. that evening. More than 80 eyewitness accounts were associated with the North Carolina meteor.
There were 160 eyewitness accounts of a meteor throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia Friday night, according to the American Meteor Society.
“An analysis of these accounts shows that the meteor skimmed the coast of North Carolina, becoming visible 48 miles above the ocean off Camp Lejeune, moving northeast at 32,000 miles per hour,” said NASA Meteor Watch.
Eventually, the meteor disintegrated approximately 28 miles above Morehead City, N.C., after traveling 26 miles through Earth’s upper atmosphere. Its trajectory was unusually uncertain, as most of the observers were located west of the actual fireball.
Meteor or “shooting star” sightings occur when meteoroids – objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, according to NASA – enter Earth’s atmosphere at a high speed and burn up. If part of the space rock survives its trip to Earth, it is called a meteorite.
A meteor is called a “fireball” when it is brighter than the planet Venus, said the American Meteor Society. This society keeps track of sightings and estimates when meteor showers, which happen when the Earth passes through an area with a great concentration of debris, such as comet particles.
According to the society, several thousand fireball meteors pass through the planet’s atmosphere daily, though most are over oceans or other areas where they are not seen by humans.
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