Society: Meteor may have landed in Georgia

A fireball meteor lit up the night sky over North Florida on Saturday, causing a “window rattling delayed boom,” according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).

More than 230 reports about the bright fireball and subsequent sonic boom were received by the AMS as of Tuesday. The group then used the reports to determine the meteor’s trajectory as traveling from Southwest Florida to the northeast. The society is a non-profit organization founded in 1911 that supports amateur and professional astronomers interested in meteors. 

“The sonic boom reports appear to all be clustered around the ending point of the meteor, many from Lake City,” stated the AMS.

No rock finds have been reported, according to Mike Hankey of the AMS, but “the most likely area to search for possible meteorites would be Moniac, Ga.,” he said.

According to the AMS, a fireball is a very bright meteor, brighter than the planet Venus. They burn bright as they fall through the atmosphere but will stop emitting light as they reach terminal velocity around 200 to 400 miles per hour. However, meteorites reach the ground at just slightly above ambient temperature.

Vann writes for the Suwannee Democrat in Live Oak, Florida.