A meteor flash across the skies caught the attention of hundreds of people from California to South Texas last Saturday. It was reported that a man named Guy Parker captured images of a long-tailed fireball on his car's dash camera while he was driving along Hausman Road. It was believed that meteorites could have crashed into the Earth, which, according to NASA is not unusual considering that around 100 tons of meteors came into the Earth's atmosphere every day.
CNN reported that Dr. Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said that scientists are still looking into the details of the event. He said in a conference call that it was definitely a fireball, a meteor which is brighter than planet Venus. The NASA meteor camera situated in New Mexico captured the meteor shower and it was indeed so bright, given the distance of more than 500 miles away, hence, somewhat unusual. Dr. Cooke added further that based on NASA's Camera, it was estimated to be at least 4-feet wide, weighing about 4,000 pounds and is burning five times brighter than a full moon and it was possible that some meteorites from the fireball has fallen to the Earth surface. He said that it could come from the ongoing North Taurid meteor shower or a piece of rock from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They are still gathering information to support their investigation.
On the other hand, an update from the Maverick County Sheriff's Department states that data from the National Weather Service in San Antonio showed that around 8:45 p.m., Central Time, the ground shook when a meteorite landed.
Dr. Cooke said that meteor showers usually happened on uninhabited areas or across oceans, hence, not drawing much attention. Thousands of which occur every day in the Earth's Atmosphere.
