Texas Fireball

Nasa Space Science

On Friday the 13th of October, thousands of high-school football spectators in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were surprised when a brilliant meteor streaked overhead at approximately 7:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time. Sky watchers on the scene say that the slow-moving fireball was as bright as the full Moon. But was it a decaying piece of space junk or perhaps an errant asteroid burning up in Earth's atmosphere? Satellite decay experts say the streak of light was probably a fragment from a Proton rocket launch hours earlier.