The skies over Florida and Georgia were briefly light up by a meteor or meteorite streaking through the skies, alarming commuters on the road and those who happened to be awake.
The National Weather Service in Tennessee says the fireball streaked across Florida skies at around 11:52 p.m. Saturday night and that it could be seen from hundreds of miles away. The NWS tweeted images from its GOES Lightning Mapper, which is used to track lightning in thunderstorms, that tracked the meteor impacting the atmosphere. The tiny
"We've heard reports that it landed near Perry, FL, which would match with the GLM data, but can't confirm anything," the NWS said is a tweet. "The satellite data suggests that *if* it landed, though, it was in FL."
People in Taylor County, Florida, reported hearing a loud boom as the meteor lit up the skies.
Users took to Twitter to share photos and videos they captured of the phenomenon, with one driver's dashcam capturing him shouting "What the f*** was that?!" as the fireball plummeted to earth.
"It was like someone turned on the stadium lights," Jania Kadar told the Tallahassee Democrat. "I look up and there is this bluish green flash. It almost looks like daylight."
It's unknown whether the meteor hit the ground, or if it broke up in the atmosphere before impact.
Photo: National Weather Service