NASA officials confirm mysterious fireball is space junk


A mysterious object that lit up the night sky in the southeast was space debris re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA officials.

The debris was traveling around 14,500 miles per hour and was tracked by five NASA cameras in the southeast. The object was spotted around 1:30 a.m. in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.

The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville is part of NASA's fireball camera network and monitors the sky on clear nights for events like this. After a meteor shot through the sky in 2014, they say it happens regularly.

“Every once in a while the earth runs into these objects as we're moving around the sun,” said David Dundee from the Tellus Science Museum. “On the average I see two or three reports every month of a bright, really bright fireball."

The Channel 2 Action News newsroom received several phone calls and many people posted pictures and videos to social media. People described it looking like a bright fireball with lights streaming behind it. The flash didn't last very long, it disappeared after a few moments.

A viewer from McDonough told Channel 2 Action News it was "something with bright colors with a long following of bright colors went through the sky. It was amazing."