Daytime Fireball Stuns Midwest Residents as Asteroid Fragment Enters Earth's Atmosphere

A blazing fireball that violently broke apart overhead left Midwesterners impressed and wondering what they just saw, after it soared across the sky at 6:13 a.m. on Friday. The fireball, later determined to be an asteroid fragment, was visible to witnesses in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, despite already being light outside.

According to NASA, the fireball had broken off from a 4,000-pound asteroid as it entered the earth's atmosphere. It was initially spotted about 50 miles above Fairchild, Wisconsin, moving at 36,000 miles per hour. The breakaway fireball traveled 39 miles southward before breaking apart dramatically over Shamrock, releasing energy equivalent to 60 tons of TNT.

Witnesses described a bright white light, with some hearing an explosive boom as it burst into pieces. Reports submitted to the American Meteor Society included descriptions of a "rolling" object that "evaporated into 2 very white smoke clouds" and a "giant flash of light" followed by a “huge boom.”

The fireball left a hard-to-miss smoke trail hanging in the sky, lingering overhead for several minutes. A second, less bright fireball was detected hours later at 11:15 p.m., disintegrating near Lake Stylus after initially being visible near Rose City, Michigan.

NASA reported that the orbit of the object producing the meteor indicates it was a fragment from a short-period comet. Despite being less bright, the second fireball was still visible to those who spotted it in eight U.S. states and Canada.