Huge Fireball Meteor Blasts Heard Over Several U.S. States Spark Anxiety, NASA Calms Fears [Video]

Residents of several states in the U.S. have reported hearing huge blasts in the sky and seeing powerful flashes of light on Thursday, November 19, 2015. The explosions caused anxiety, with many people taking to social media to make inquiries about what caused the blasts.

Reports of an alien UFO crashing to Earth had emerged in some online circles before NASA confirmed that the loud explosions and flashes of light were caused by the explosion of two fireball meteors in the sky.

According to WDRB meteorologist Rick DeLuca, NASA’s cameras tracked two fireball meteors that exploded over the Ohio Valley, on November 19, 2015. The first exploded with a flash of light at 7:25 p.m. CST, after streaking across the sky at 57 miles altitude from east of Hillsdale in Michigan, traveling at 42,000 mph. It passed over Detroit before burning up completely at about 37 miles altitude, northeast of Lake St. Clair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOmg7ML_4Jw

It burned brighter than the crescent moon, indicating it was caused by a fragment of an asteroid about six inches in diameter and weighing about 10 pounds, according to NASA.

The second explosion, caused by a meteoroid about eight inches in diameter, believed to be a fragment from a Jupiter family comet, occurred a few hours later at 9:44 p.m. CST, over Ohio and Pennsylvania. It streaked across the sky, starting about 44 miles altitude over the town of New Perkin in Indiana, and travelling “east of north” at 35,000 mph.

It burned up completely south of Seymour in Indiana at an altitude of 15 miles.

Videos uploaded to YouTube show the fireball meteors streaking across the sky and exploding with a loud bang and a bright flash. Residents in several states, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, reported hearing the bang and seeing the flash of light.

A witness in Alabama uploaded the video of the loud fireball explosion below, recorded on the evening of November 19, 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xM_I2NZoT0

Several witnesses took to Twitter, saying they heard the explosion and saw the bright flash of light in the sky.

A witness described the sighting as a “huge burst of light coming down… about 100 feet off the highway, not 100 miles,” suggesting the explosion appeared to occur very close to the ground.

@MyGlendale About 20 min ago, heard an explosion, now this? and helicopters…what’s going on? pic.twitter.com/hN0bFcm3BU

— Amanda Green (@GreenstheWord) November 20, 2015

A witness from Plainville, Indiana, said, “This meteor broke up in a field next to my house. It was the most frightening and amazing thing I have ever seen. The sky was a bright as day and as the meteor fell, we could see the pieces breaking up and looked like flaming pieces of plane wreckage.”

NASA camera near Huntsville, AL picked up the fireball #meteor in the #WLKY area on their network. Details to come. pic.twitter.com/ySls2xMP2O

— Matt Milosevich (@WLKYMatt) November 20, 2015

A witness, Amanda Green, from Bay Area, California, tweeted that she also heard a loud explosion. She wrote, “About 20 min ago, heard an explosion, now this? And helicopters…what’s going on?”

“About 20 min ago, heard an explosion, now this? and helicopters…what’s going on?”

“Am I the only one who saw something fall from space in the last ten minutes? #DFW #Meteor #Aliens? #FallingDebris.”

“NASA camera near Huntsville, AL picked up the fireball #meteor in the #WLKY area on their network.”

“Anyone see that bright #fireball at 10:45 pm tonight? It looked like a blue meteor streaking below the Moon.”

Soon after the explosion, Brandon Able, from Kentucky, tweeted to Marc Weinberg, chief meteorologist at WDRB in Louisville, Kentucky, asking, “any idea what that loud boom and shaking was in the PRP area?”

@MarcWeinbergWX any idea what that loud boom and shaking was in the PRP area?

— Brandon Able (@BigTicketAbles) November 20, 2015

Weinberg responded much later with a tweet to @MarcWeinbergWX, saying that NASA had “confirmed it was a fireball meteor in our sky last night.”

NASA confirmed it was a fireball meteor in our sky last night. WATCH security footage here.. https://t.co/YwfCufb3Od pic.twitter.com/cUZBlX97VA

— Marc Weinberg (@MarcWeinbergWX) November 20, 2015

The latest report comes as the Leonid meteors, consisting of dusty debris from the orbit of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, peaked on November 18.

[Photo By NASA/Getty Images]