Unbelievable sight: Meteor or asteroid? Exploding fireball seen in Florida skies 'exceptionally close' to Earth

Skies from Jacksonville to Miami were lit up by a rare fireball late Monday that prompted calls to the National Weather Service and more than 200 reports to the American Meteor Society. 

The lightshow, which included a long fiery tail and bright explosion at the end, occurred at 10:16 p.m. 

Meteor or asteroid?

NASA astronomer Bill Cooke said the unanticipated fireworks were caused by an estimated 900-pound asteroid fragment hitting the Earth's atmosphere at 38,000 mph. It broke apart about 23 miles above the Atlantic, generating the energy equivalent of 14 tons of TNT. 

"These things just come at random," Cooke said. "The atmosphere will break apart anything smaller than a football field." 

A special type of fireball

Mike Hankey, the operations manager for the American Meteor Society, said the fireball is technically a 'bolide' because it blows up after entering Earth's atmosphere. 

"This is a special type of fireball that ends with a large burst of light and often a boom sound," Hankey said. 

Some social media users also reported hearing a sonic boom. 

It was unclear earlier in the day whether the asteroid fragment was part of the recently identified 2021 GW4 asteroid, but Cooke determined it was not after reviewing its trajectory and orbit. 

Video from three NASA sky meteor cameras located at the Kennedy Space Center, University of Central Florida and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach was used to calculate the track of the falling space rock. 

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Calculating the track of the falling space rock

"It's just the flotsam and jetsam of the solar system," Cooke said. "This one was way too small to get any kind of name." 

The asteroid fragment entered the atmosphere at a fairly steep angle of 50 degrees and became visible 62 miles above the water southwest of Freeport, Bahamas. 

West Palm Beach residents Chris and Tracy Worster were going about their normal evening routines Monday when they noticed the sky brighten outside. 

Palm Beach County residents recount seeing the falling fireball

"We live very close to downtown and are familiar with the sounds and lights that come with living where we do," Chris Worster said. "This flash of light was unusual enough that I went outside to check the property and make sure there was nothing of concern but we didn't think about it the rest of the evening."

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It wasn't until Tuesday morning after seeing a story about the fireball that Worster checked his doorbell camera and realized he got a video of it. 

"The footage speaks for itself, pretty cool stuff," he said. 

An asteroid is composed of rock, iron or icy debris, that is usually considered inactive as far as not shedding pieces of itself. A comet is a cauldron of gas, dust, ice and rock that has a glowing head and tail and leaves a trail of debris in its wake. 

The small space rock 2021 GW4 that some speculated was the source of Monday's fireball passed at an "exceptionally close" 12,430 miles from Earth's surface Monday morning, according to Gianluca Masi of VirtualTelescope.eu. 

Cooke said the fragment that produced Monday's fireball had a diameter of about 2 feet – not big enough to be considered an asteroid, which is 3.2 feet (1 meter) or greater. 

Asteroid fragments are called meteoroids. When meteoroids hit the atmosphere and burn up, producing light, they are called meteors. 

"This was a nice chunk but I doubt it was anywhere near 1M (3.2 feet)," Hankey said. 

The fireball was bright enough to be easily detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper on the GOES-16 satellite, Cooke said. 

It was a rare treat during a dearth of sky shows. The last notable meteor shower was the Quadrantids in early January. The Lyrids meteor shower is expected to begin on about April 16 and last through April 25. 

EarthSky.org said about 10 to 15 meteors per hour are possible at the peak of the shower before dawn on April 22, but that the Lyrids are know for surges that can send up to 100 meteors per hour into the atmosphere.  

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@Kmillerweather