{"id":758491,"date":"2026-07-12T12:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758491\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:23:16","slug":"fireball-in-carolinas-sky-was-not-a-meteor-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758491\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireball in Carolinas sky was not a meteor, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fireball.png\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"Forty stargazers in the Carolinas and four other states reported seeing a fireball in the early morning sky Thursday, according to the American Meteorological Society.\" alt=\"Forty stargazers in the Carolinas and four other states reported seeing a fireball in the early morning sky Thursday, according to the American Meteorological Society.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Forty stargazers in the Carolinas and four other states reported seeing a fireball in the early morning sky Thursday, according to the American Meteorological Society.<\/p>\n<p>                Michelle PT R.<\/p>\n<p>            Michelle PT R.<\/p>\n<p>Forty stargazers in the Carolinas and four other states <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/fireball.amsmeteors.org\/members\/imo_view\/event\/2026\/5248#video_box\">reported seeing a fireball<\/a> in the early morning sky Thursday, according to the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ametsoc.org\/ams\/\">American Meteorological Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The mysterious orb streaked \u201cfrom up right to down left,\u201d Mark S. of Belmont reported on the site with a photo and video of the object above the Belmont\/Belmont Abbey College exit of Interstate 85. The site typically includes only the first name and first letter of a person\u2019s last name.<\/p>\n<p>Michael D. of Statesville and Greg. H. of the town of Catawba reported the same movement, while Devin W. of Rutherfordton saw the object shooting down right to up left.<\/p>\n<p>People in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee also said they saw the object at 5:31 a.m. and sent 17 photos and four videos to the society.<\/p>\n<p>No mystery in the end, society officials said. It was a rocket launch.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Charlotte Observer<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/profile\/218241645\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Joe Marusak.jpeg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Joe Marusak\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/profile\/218241645\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Marusak<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Charlotte Observer<\/p>\n<p>            Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news.<br \/>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/charlotteobserver.com\/subscribe\" style=\"color: #5169B8; text-transform: none;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forty stargazers in the Carolinas and four other states reported seeing a fireball in the early morning sky&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-758491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}