A bright fireball that out shined the moon last week was one of the brightest observed by NASA in the last five years.
NASA said in a press statement that the asteroid, captured by six NASA cameras in the Southeast, is approximately 2 feet wide and 100 lbs. heavy.
"From Chickamauga, Georgia, the meteor was 20 times brighter than the full moon; shadows were cast on the ground as far south as Cartersville," said Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in a press statement.
The space rock his Earth's atmosphere above the Georgia/Tennessee border at 3:27 a.m. on Aug. 28, and was moving northeast at 56,000 mph, according to SPACE.com.
NASA has released video of the asteroid, which was seen to the naked eye. Many of the videos have since gone viral, along with others taken by people who watched the space show live.
If the meteor becomes brighter than Venus, it would then be officially classified as a fireball, according to SPACE.com.
"NASA cameras lost track of the fireball pieces at an altitude of 21 miles, by which time they had slowed to a speed of 19,400 mph," Cooke added. "Sensors on the ground recorded sound waves ('sonic booms') from this event, and there are indications on Doppler weather radar of a rain of small meteoric particles falling to the ground east of Cleveland, Tennessee."
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