Witnesses report fireball in the sky across the southeast US

ATLANTA - A massive fireball that streaked across the southeastern U.S. sky in broad daylight Thursday has been confirmed by NASA as a meteor, with evidence suggesting it broke apart high above Georgia and may have sent debris crashing to the ground.

It turns out that it was a meteor. From Georgia to South Carolina and Tennessee, a mysterious flaming object could be seen streaking the sky early Thursday afternoon, leaving a trail of exhaust in its wake, and then dramatically plunking toward the ground.

A fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus in the morning or evening sky. A bolide is a special type of fireball which explodes in a bright terminal flash at its end, often with visible fragmentation.