Mysterious fireball of space junk flies over the South

NASA confirms the sighting was 'space junk.'

A mysterious object lit up in the sky on June 29 in the southeast. The source has since been confirmed as a space junk passing by and reentering our atmosphere. Sightings of the "fireball" were taken to social media, where people tried to guess whether it was a meteorite or even an asteroid shoot. Several news reports were made posting videos and pictures online, garnering attention.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - "Every once in a while the earth runs into these objects as we're moving around the sun. On the average I see two or three reports every month of a bright, really bright fireball," said David Dundee of the Tellus Science Museum, as cited from WSBTV report.

They explained that the sightings of like objects happen regularly after the meteor shot in our sky last year. The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville is part of a network from NASA which monitors fireballs and such happenings during the clear night sky.

According to witnesses from areas in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, the fireball did not last long in the sky at about 1:30 am. They said they saw some lights and smoke trailing behind it as it passed by in the sky.

One witness from McDonough told the news, "something with bright colors with a long following of bright colors went through the sky. It was amazing." People reported that it moved from west to east before vanishing from the atmosphere.

The fireball was traveling at about 14,500 miles per hour, according to NASA. The term fireball is used for a very bright meteor which commonly has brightness greater than magnitude -4, as explained by the American Meteor Society. They added that it was around the same magnitude with the planet Venus, which is sighted during the morning or evening sky. 

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