A meteorite that was barely longer than a standard baseball bat splintered off a meteor blazing over the Houston-area on Saturday, scattering smaller chunks all over the city — with one smashing through a woman’s roof.
A fireball tore through the sky over the Houston-area at a staggering 35,000 mph in mere seconds on Saturday afternoon. A 3-foot meteorite broke off just 29 miles above Bammel, Texas, creating “a pressure wave that caused booms heard by some in the area,” NASA confirmed in a post on X.
More meteorites breaking off from the one-ton chunk rained down on the city.
NASA said meteorites were produced between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing — two neighborhoods that are 20 miles apart.
Frazzled Houstonians thought the pressure wave was an explosion — and the Brenham Fire Department was even dispatched to Highway 50, but didn’t find anything strange at the scene.
Several witnesses who were driving on the highway that afternoon reported seeing a “green flash fall from the sky, black smoke, and heard a loud ‘boom.’”
Fire officials could only assume the culprit was a “possible meteor” at the time.
A football-sized piece broke through a residential home’s roof in Ponderosa Forest, Texas, roughly 20 miles outside of Houston.
Sherrie James, the stunned homeowner, found an “unusual rock” not far from a gaping hole in her ceiling and flooring.
Since there was no construction or trees near James’ home, the fire department told FOX 26 the rock was likely part of the then-unconfirmed meteor that soared over Houston.
The American Meteor Society collected more than 100 reports of the “fireball event” later cited in NASA’s meteor confirmation.
Last week, another meteor exploded over Ohio, sending a sonic boom that could be heard from as far as New York.
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