NEW ORLEANS — Did you make a wish? A shooting star shot across the sky over Southeast Louisiana around 4:30 Friday morning.
Surveillance cameras and cell phones caught glimpses of the bright light all across the area.
The American Meteor Society got almost 30 witness reports stretching from Dallas to Pensacola, and say the trajectory moved northeast across the sky.
While it’s not often we get to see these shows from space, trained spotters in the New Orleans area have reported seeing several this year.
The American Meteor Society has five reports of a fireball seen over southeast Louisiana late last month. And in February, some on the Northshore reportedly saw a fireball that streaked across central Arkansas.
So what are we actually seeing?
NASA says when meteoroids – also known as space rocks - enter the Earth’s atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour, they start to burn up. They become that bright light in the sky, often called fireballs, shooting stars, or meteors.
On the rare chance it didn’t burn up entirely, and some of this rock survived being vaporized in the atmosphere, you’d find a meteorite on the ground.
NASA, of course, tracks these things, and we have reached out to see what they know about this meteor.
But if you’ve got the itch to see a meteor for yourself, mark your calendar: the Perseids meteor shower will peak August 12 and 13.
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