The appearance of the fireball with a loud bang over the US caused concern. The phenomenon occurred in the southern states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi in the US. More than thirty people saw the fireball in these places. It was eight-thirty the previous morning. Experts say it was first spotted 87 km above the Mississippi River in the Alcon near Mississippi.
The incident has been confirmed by NASA. “It’s a rare sight,” said Bill Cook, head of NASA’s Space Flight Center in Alabama. Scientists call the bolide, which means a large meteorite that explodes in the atmosphere, travels southeast at a speed of 85,000 kilometers per hour and split into several pieces during the voyage, turning into a fiery sphere that looks like a white, fiery tail.
Eyewitnesses say that a very high level of noise similar to the sonic boom phenomenon was also heard. The fireball generated 3,000 tons of energy equivalent to TNT. It was ten times brighter than the moon.
The incident caused concern among the public as there was a nuclear reactor called the Grand Gulf Reactor at Claybone County, near where it was first seen. But the Claybone County Emergency Management Agency soon issued a press release stating that the reactor was safe and that everything was safe. Many stories about the fireball quickly spread. Rumors have it that it could be an asteroid, a comet or an alien spacecraft. Scientists speculate that this may be a small rock or meteorite that entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The object was captured on satellite imagery. The incident caused panic among the people. This was followed by numerous calls to NASA.
