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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eyewitness accounts in the greater Houston area \u2014 including footage from a doorbell camera, a car\u2019s dashboard camera and video captured during a Little League baseball game \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station,\u201d the agency wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s atmosphere, the pressure wave caused sonic booms that were heard by some people in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just went in and looked, and I saw the hole, and I saw the dent in the floor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next to her daughter\u2019s bed, James found what she described as a \u201cbig, black rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m like: What is this?\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I called my grandson, and I said: Look at that. I said, \u2018Is that a meteor?\u2019 That\u2019s the first thing came to my mind, because it was all black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspected meteorite was about the size of a baseball, but James said it felt heavier than a baseball. She said no one in her household was injured when the rock smashed through her home, despite the startling nature of the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt just looked like a rock, and ain\u2019t no rocks got no business falling out of the sky,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Meteor Society, which tracks fireball events around the world, had more than 140 reports for Saturday\u2019s meteor across south-central and southeastern Texas, including in Houston, Katy, College Station, San Antonio and Austin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA said Doppler weather radar indicated that meteorites may have dropped over parts of the Houston area stretching between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday\u2019s meteor sighting comes only four days after a separate daytime fireball was seen \u2014 and heard \u2014 across northeastern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania. Bill Cooke, who leads NASA\u2019s Meteoroid Environment Office, told NBC News at the time that the fireball and sonic booms were likely caused by a small, 7-ton asteroid measuring around 6 feet across. As the meteor fragmented, Cooke said, it likely unleashed an enormous amount of energy, equivalent to 250 tons of TNT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early data suggested the meteor was moving at 45,000 mph through the upper atmosphere before it fragmented over Valley City, Ohio. Cooke said the fireball likely produced some meteorites around Medina County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Large meteors that create bright fireballs are relatively rare but are not altogether uncommon. Small space rocks, bits of dust and old rocket parts hit Earth daily, according to NASA, but most burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n