NASA officials say brilliant lights and loud booms reported in Alabama and Georgia were a meteor that streaked across the South.
Officials at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville said a baseball-size fragment of a comet entered Earth's atmosphere above Alabama at 8:18 p.m. Central Time on Monday.
NASA officials say the meteor traveled at a speed of 76,000 mph. They say that just three seconds after hitting the atmosphere, it disintegrated 25 miles above the Alabama town of Woodstock, producing a flash of light. Woodstock is about 30 miles southwest of Woodstock.
NASA says eyewitnesses the meteor produced sonic booms because it penetrated so deep into Earth's atmosphere.
Music fans at a Mumford & Sons concert in Pelham Monday night also reported seeing a brilliant flash of light.