ATMOSPHERIC FIREBALL

NASA Says 1,000LB Meteor Probably Did Crash Into Texas

The event alarmed residents who said the impact shook their houses.

NASA has said that their data suggests a fireball seen streaming across the sky in Texas before breaking up and crashing into the ground Wednesday night was a 1,000-pound meteorite. Residents reported that their houses shook “in a violent manner” and the police were inundated with calls. NASA said it was still examining an “atmospheric fireball” that appeared in the sky around 6 p.m. Feb. 15, near the city of McAllen in southern Texas. NASA experts believe the fireball was a meteoroid about two feet in diameter. The angle and speed of entry, along with signatures in weather radar imagery, it said, are consistent with other naturally occurring meteorite falls. There were no reports of any damage or injuries. It likely broke up on entry into Earth's atmosphere but pieces of it are believed to have reached the ground. Those pieces are dubbed meteorites. According to NASA, small asteroids enter the atmosphere above the continental United States once or twice a year on average and often deliver meteorites to the ground. “It created panic throughout the city,” Cesar Torres, chief of police in Mission, said Thursday.