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Glowing fireball meteor lights up Florida skies

A space rock went out in a literal blaze of glory Saturday night, burning up in full view of many residents of the southeastern US.

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
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Eric Mack

There's never a dull moment in Florida. This truism was proven once again Saturday night when dash cams in the Gainesville area picked up an impressively bright, blue-greenish fireball plunging toward Earth. 

An instrument on NASA's GOES-16 satellite designed to map lightning also picked up something over the Florida panhandle, which the National Weather Service confirmed to be a meteor.

A number of other eyewitnesses reported on social media seeing the bright light rushing toward the ground, and 220 reports from Florida and adjacent states were made to the American Meteor Society.  

There haven't been confirmed reports yet of the meteor impacting the ground. Surprisingly, small meteoroids can put off lots of bright light as they completely burn up in our atmosphere. 

This latest meteoroid sighting comes after a larger daytime meteor was seen (and heard) last month sizzling over Florida skies toward Cuba, where some small bits of the space rock survived to make it to the ground.