Loud boom heard in Texas last week was caused by meteor hitting ground, NASA says
Houston air traffic controllers said they received reports from at least two aircraft seeing the meteor shoot across the Texas sky Wednesday afternoon.
Watch: Security camera captures loud, shaking boom from falling meteor in South Texas
People across South Texas reported hearing loud, shaking booms when a meteor shot across the sky on Wednesday afternoon.
HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas – NASA scientists have confirmed that the loud boom that startled people and animals in Texas last week was indeed caused by a meteor crashing into Earth.
A home security camera captured the moment the boom happened. It was so loud that it startled birds and shook the camera.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said in a tweet that he was informed that air traffic controllers in Houston, about 350 miles away, received reports from at least two aircraft that they saw a meteor shoot across the sky to the west of McAllen.
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Guerra added that it was unclear if the meteor made it to the ground, but there had been no reports of damage in the area. Meteors that survive the trip through Earth's atmosphere and impact the ground are called meteorites.
The National Weather Service in Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley said they, too, received multiple reports of a possible meteor in the sky to the west of McAllen. The NWS said the flash from the meteor was also captured on the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) just before 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
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The GLM measures total lightning as observed from space.
"There was no thunderstorm activity in the Valley, but the GLM still detected a signal around 5:23 p.m. CST," the NWS said in a Facebook post.
Police in Alton, Texas, just outside McAllen, also said they received numerous calls about hearing an explosion across the city around the same time the aircraft spotted the meteor shooting across the sky.
NASA confirmed that the meteor, which was about 2 feet wide and weighed about 1,000 lbs hit the ground in South Texas, according to a report from FOX 4 Dallas.
Scientists believe the meteor broke into several pieces before hitting the ground near McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday.
"Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow as they travel through the atmosphere, breaking into small fragments before hitting the ground. Meteorites cool rapidly and generally are not a risk to the public," NASA said in a statement.
FOX 4 Dallas reported that one to two small meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere above the U.S. every year and break up into pieces that hit the ground, making them meteorites.
"The meteor seen in the skies above McAllen is a reminder of the need for NASA and other organizations to increase our understanding and protection of Earth, to combine scientific and engineering expertise to advance human space exploration, to integrate terrestrial and planetary research for furthering our understanding of the solar system, and to promote successful space missions by mitigating risk," NASA said.