NASA Solves Mystery of the Fireball That Lit Up the West Virginia Sky

An enormous fireball exploded in the night sky above West Virginia on August 2, mystifying eyewitnesses.

The explosion, which briefly outshone the supermoon lighting up the sky, was filmed by Bill Stewart, an amateur astronomer in Ceredo who happened to be recording at the time.

Scientists have suggested the fireball was likely caused by a comet fragment falling through the Earth's atmosphere.

"It was at 2:13 a.m.," Stewart told Spaceweather.com. "The fireball made two audible booms. After one bright flash it broke into 3 distinct fragments. One remained bright as it descended below the horizon. It could have possibly touched down although I didn't hear it impact."

A NASA scientist has suggested that a large comet fragment, weighing around 75 pounds, fell to Earth and burnt up in the atmosphere, causing the fireball.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office told Spaceweather.com: "It entered Earth's atmosphere about 50 miles above the Kentucky town of Krypton—yes, really —moving roughly southeast at 37,000 miles per hour.

"The object traveled 65 miles through the atmosphere before disintegrating 30 miles above Duffield, Virginia."

Cooke added: "The breakup of the fireball generated an energy of roughly 2 tons of TNT, which caused the booms and shakings experienced by some in the region. At its brightest the fireball was about five times brighter than the full moon."

Fireballs, also known as bolides, are caused by larger-than-average meteors falling to Earth and burning up rapidly in the atmosphere because of intense friction.

"Fireball meteors are fragments of rock or ice from asteroids or comets. In this case, it was likely an asteroid based on the apparent entry velocity, fragmentation characteristics and sonic effects," said Mike Hankey, an amateur astronomer and operations manager for the American Meteor Society.

"It is possible meteorites survived and are lying in the woods somewhere near the eastern border of Kentucky and Tennessee," Hankey told Newsweek.

More than 70 people reported sightings of the fireball to the American Meteor Society. The observers were in locations across the eastern United States, starting in Ohio and stretching south to Georgia.

"I have always tried to pay attention to meteor showers and things of that nature and have (for the most part) been disappointed with what I'd seen. I've encountered some rare bright flashes but never on the magnitude I saw here," commented one Kentucky-based user, Nick M, on the society's website.

"This was the coolest thing I have ever witnessed," wrote Amanda W, also in Kentucky.

"It was the brightest and biggest meteor I have ever seen. It was the most elegant green ball arcing across the sky before it suddenly turned to a bright gold as it broke apart and disappeared," posted April H, from Tennessee.

The comet that the fragment originated from is unknown, but it may have come from the inner solar system's debris field, which is filled with chunks of many asteroids and comets.

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