A meteor lit up the skies over parts of North Carolina and Tennessee on Thursday night, passing at 47,000 mph, according to NASA. Eyewitnesses have shared numerous photos on social media of the fireball, which initially appeared about 50 miles above the town of Robbinsville, North Carolina. NASA said the meteor was also captured by its specialized imaging systems, called sky cameras, which were stationed throughout the region. One of NASA’s sky cameras captured the meteor streaking through the skies over southern Tennessee on Nov. 5, 2026. Those NASA cameras tracked the fireball as it moved west toward southern Tennessee, eventually dissipating once it reached a point about 25 miles above the town of East Ridge, near Chattanooga. Only about 10 seconds passed between the first and last sighting of the meteor. NASA said it was able to analyze the meteor using images from sky cameras at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, and others stationed in Huntsville, Alabama, Tullahoma, Tennessee, and a location closer to the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The agency determined that the object was a small piece of asteroid, measuring two inches in diameter and weighing six ounces. Meteors, also called “shooting stars,” are the visible trajectories of asteroid fragments that have entered Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA. Astronomers use the term “fireball” to describe an especially bright meteor, which can be seen over a wide area due to its austere appearance. Some fireballs are much larger than the one detected over North Carolina and Tennessee last week, and NASA says they can measure three feet or more. NASA said the meteor was not part of the Taurid meteor shower, which is currently active. Go deeper with The Free Press on:
