Meteor spotted streaking above Texas responsible for sonic booms, NASA says

A bright fireball that was spotted Saturday afternoon in the skies over southeastern Texas was confirmed to be a meteor that likely broke apart over the Houston area, according to NASA

A bright fireball that was spotted Saturday afternoon in the skies over southeastern Texas was confirmed to be a meteor that likely broke apart over the Houston area, according to NASA.

Eyewitness accounts in the greater Houston area — including footage from a doorbell camera, a car’s dashboard camera and video captured during a Little League baseball game — showed a fiery ball of light streaking across clear, blue skies. NASA said the meteor event occurred at 4:40 p.m. local time, first visible in Stagecoach, northwest of Houston.

“It moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station,” the agency wrote in a post on X.

Early estimates suggest the meteor measured around 3 feet across and weighed about a ton, according to NASA. As the space rock plunged through Earth’s atmosphere, the pressure wave caused sonic booms that were heard by some people in the area.

One Houston-area resident, Sherrie James, said a possible piece of the meteor crashed through the roof of her house Saturday afternoon. James told NBC News that she was in her bathroom combing her hair when she heard a loud boom and then a thud coming from her daughter’s room.