A luminous object burst into the clear starry sky over the southeastern coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Miami at great speed, only to soon explode and illuminate the skies of the Sunshine State with its brightest flash.
According to some eyewitnesses' accounts, people could hear a sonic boom sound quite loud and clear. And many of them rushed to immediately share their successful shots on social media.
According to the USA Today, citing the operations manager for the American Meteor Society, Mike Hankey, it was most likely a piece of an asteroid based on the speed and characteristics of the fireball, but whether it was a piece of the newly discovered 2021 GW4, that recently passed the Earth at approximately 12,430 miles (20,000 km) above the surface, is unknown.
Geostationary satellites, by comparison, orbit about 22,000 miles (35,400 km) above the Earth.
An asteroid is a piece of rock, iron, or ice debris that is inactive in the sense that it does not shed parts of itself. A comet is a whirlpool of hydrogen, dust, ice, and rock with a glowing head and tail that leaves a debris trail in its path.
Asteroids are considered space bodies with a diameter of more than 30m, smaller bodies are called meteoroids.
According to the report, asteroids and their fragments are usually slower than comets and their events last longer.
"This was a nice chunk but I doubt it was anywhere near (3.2 feet/1 meter)," Hankey said. "More likely it was in the softball to basketball range."