A large meteor fell toward Earth over the weekend, exploding with a visible flash and fragmenting into smaller chunks across Houston, Texas.
Local residents first spotted a bright fireball around 5:40 p.m. ET on Saturday. NASA later confirmed that a meteor had traveled over Texas, causing a loud boom heard across the Houston area. The meteor broke apart into fragments, some of which may have crashed through a home and punctured a hole in the ceiling, The Guardian reported.
Incoming!
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received over 150 eyewitness reports of the meteor flying over Texas. Eyewitnesses reported a loud, thunder-like clap and a streak of light across the skies. AMS classified the event as a fireball, a term used for exceptionally bright meteors that can be seen with the naked eye.
The meteor in question weighed about a ton and measured at around 3 feet wide (1 meter), according to NASA. The agency’s data indicates that the meteor first became visible around 49 miles (78 kilometers) above Stagecoach, northwest of Houston, and later traveled southwest at 35,000 miles per hour (56,327 kilometers per hour).
The fireball released an amount of energy equivalent to 26 tons of TNT explosives into the atmosphere, according to NASA. The space agency estimates that the meteor broke apart 29 miles (46 kilometers) above Bammel, north of downtown Houston, and its fragments fell between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.
Home invasion
A chunk of the meteor may have landed inside a north Houston home, tearing through the roof and the floor upon impact.
“My grandson went to check and said there was a hole in the ceiling … then I saw the rock, and I thought, ‘That looks like a meteor,’” Sherrie James told local news reporters, according to The Guardian. James called the local fire department, who later informed her of the meteor reports.
The incident in Houston comes just a few days after another meteor exploded over northeast Ohio, becoming visible in the morning sky and causing a loud sonic boom. Meteorite hunters have since flocked to Cleveland in search of chunks of the space rock that may be lying around, the New York Times reported.
The back-to-back meteor sightings are inspiring a chase to acquire a piece of the cosmos in one’s hand, as well as the financial payoff, too. Last year, a 54-pound (24-kilogram) Martian meteorite sold for $5.3 million at a New York auction. The meteorites scattered across Houston and Ohio may not be as valuable, but they are still worth a shot.
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