SAN ANTONIO — A loud boom broke the sound barrier and shook the ground in Mission, Texas, this week. The American Meteor Society confirms a meteor was seen and heard across much of deep South Texas.
Let's look at the difference between a meteor and a meteorite.
A meteor is a fireball in the sky that burns up in the atmosphere; a meteorite is one that actually strikes the ground.
As of now the American Meteor Society says the terminal point of the fireball, or where it burned out, was about 10 miles southeast of Nuevo Laredo. As more reports come in, that location could change.
They also said "there is a good chance meteorites survived from this fireball and hit the ground somewhere. This is based on the boom reports and also the GLM recordings. It is usually many fragments and not a single stone."
The meteor was even picked up by the GOES Lightning Mapper, which usually picks up light producing optics like lightning.
Barry Goldsmith, a warning coordinating meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Brownsville said, "The way we check here at the weather service is, was there a thunderstorm nearby in the vicinity? The answer for the night or the evening of February 15 was clearly no."
Even though it is rare to witness these events outside of meteor showers, they happen all of the time. Rick Varner, the Scobee Education Center Director added, "In Texas alone since January there have been more than 90 reports of different kinds of sightings."
The incident was exciting enough for what the HTV Store hopes is a boom in business. Anna, a co-owner of the store said, "Last night when it happened, we kinda think the same my sister and I. We were like hey this would be really funny. We decided to wait till this morning to design it to make sure nobody had gotten hurt."
Authorities say if you do come across any fragments of the fireball, do not touch them, but notify the authorities so the fragments can be handled properly.