The American Meteor Society has answered the question weighing on the minds of Rio Grande Valley residents since a bright meteor was seen over the skies of Mission and western Hidalgo County Wednesday evening.
“At no point was this fireball near Mission nor did it strike the ground,” said Robert Lunsford, the journal editor with the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit which encourages meteor research and publishes material on the subject.
Lunsford said in an email that they received five reports of a fireball, or bright meteor, seen over South Texas around 5:23 p.m. Wednesday.
As of now, the computer-generated trajectory is only a good guess, but not totally reliable.
“Currently the terminal point of the fireball lies 10 miles southeast of Nuevo Laredo,” he said in an email. “This will change with any further reports we receive.”
Police and city officials in Mission reported receiving more than 100 calls from residents reporting a fireball seen streaking through the sky and a loud bang, followed their homes rumbling.
Some took to social media and shared their experience. Here’s one such clip.
You can hear the meteorite explosion #Mcallen #Mission pic.twitter.com/W2Eb1Yci5o
— marcos (@disdikmark) February 16, 2023
Here’s the latest update:
Meteor soars over Mission, but whether it made landfall remains a mystery
