{"id":911171,"date":"2026-11-09T11:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/911171\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T11:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:08:11","slug":"meteor-lights-up-sky-over-tennessee-nasa-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/911171\/","title":{"rendered":"Meteor lights up sky over Tennessee, NASA says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A meteor that <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/30\/world-news\/massive-green-fireball-lights-up-sky-in-eerie-cosmic-display-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lit up a southeastern Tennessee sky<\/a> on Thursday in what one witness called the \u201cbiggest ball of fire\u201d they\u2019d ever seen was a piece of an asteroid vaporizing above Earth, NASA said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The fireball was first spotted above Robbinsville, North Carolina around 7:45 p.m., traveling around 47,000 miles per hour in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesfreepress.com\/news\/2026\/nov\/08\/fireball-over-chattanooga-was-a-piece-of-an-asteroid-nasa-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33333333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41739563\" width=\"787\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1794222490_315_AP24305682948527.jpg\" alt=\"All-sky camera view of a bright meteor streaking across the night sky in Tullahoma.\" class=\"wp-image-41739563\"\/>The fireball was first spotted above Robbinsville, North Carolina around 7:45 p.m., traveling around 47,000 miles per hour in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, officials said. AP<\/p>\n<p>T<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/21\/science\/rare-meteorite-that-hit-nj-home-carries-ingredients-for-life\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he cosmic debris then traveled<\/a> around 120 miles toward East Ridge, Tennessee in under 10 seconds, where it disintegrated 25 miles above the Earth\u2019s surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses on Reddit said the fireball streaked across the sky, glowing blue, white and orangish yellow, with one saying it was the \u201cbiggest ball of fire\u201d they\u2019d seen, the outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another witness in Chattanooga said they heard a sound like a lighter\u2019s \u201cpoof\u201d in the sky as the chunk of rock screeched overhead, which left behind \u201cthe most insane tail.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For all of the dramatic light and sound it caused, the fireball ended up being a small two-inch fragment of an asteroid that weighed less than half a pound, NASA confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.63168317;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41739569\" width=\"824\" height=\"505\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/6af0f69f425aeimage-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Map showing NASA camera locations and trajectories over the region between Huntsville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.\" class=\"wp-image-41739569\"\/>Officials said the cosmic debris traveled around 120 miles toward East Ridge, Tennessee in under ten seconds, where it disintegrated 25 miles above the Earth\u2019s surface.\u00a0 NASA<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s All Sky Fireball Network captured <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/25\/us-news\/two-fireballs-spotted-soaring-across-sky-during-annual-meteor-shower\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the asteroid from multiple directions<\/a> using a series of black-and-white video cameras equipped with a fisheye lens, according to the local paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The agency was able to calculate the fireball\u2019s height and speed using the camera setup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Officials from the agency said that the fireball was not a part of the Taurid meteor shower, which is typically active throughout November and brings bright meteors with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A meteor that lit up a southeastern Tennessee sky on Thursday in what one witness called the \u201cbiggest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6949,197,718,79,2219,194],"class_list":["post-911171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-asteroids","tag-meteor","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-tennessee","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911171","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=911171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}