A rare meteor with the ominous name “earthgrazer” streaked across Georgia and Alabama earlier this week before vanishing, according to NASA.
An earthgrazer is a meteor so shallow that it skims the Earth’s upper atmosphere for a long distance, and can even bounce off the atmosphere and head back into space.
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The meteor was first spotted on Nov. 9around 6:39 p.m. about 55 miles above Taylorsville, which straddles Bartow and Polk counties. It traveled towards Alabama going 38,500 miles per hour.
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Scientists say that the meteor traveled a whopping 186 miles through the air and likely disintegrated 34 miles above the town of Lutts in southern Tennessee.
We are aware of a bright fireball seen by many in the southeastern states (even through partially overcast skies) at...
Posted by NASA Meteor Watch on Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Scientists said the meteor’s path was so long that initially, their automated software could not handle all the data.
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“A rare meteor for those fortunate enough to see it,” NASA wrote on Facebook.
The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville was able to capture images of the fireball as it moved through the sky.
Video of the October 10, 2021 Georgia fireball taken by the NASA meteor camera in Cartersville, Georgia.
Posted by NASA Meteor Watch on Sunday, October 10, 2021
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