Doorbell camera captures sonic boom as half-ton meteor crashes in Texas
Topics: US News
Emma Guinness
Featured Image Credit: @disdikmark/Twitter/NASA
Topics: US News
We all know that doorbell cameras have captured some pretty interesting things since they came to be, but almost none of them have captured anything quite so out of this world.
The unbelievable footage was captured by a doorcam in Texas and it was so shocking that NASA of all places got involved.
The footage above shows what looks like any other Texas yard, only things take a dramatic turn when a sonic boom can be heard - scaring off the sitting birds.
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In case you're familiar with sonic booms, they are created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound, so you can see why the birds were startled.
The object in this instance just so happened to be a half-ton meteor (that's one which weighs almost 454 kg) and the whole thing has now been confirmed by NASA.
The meteor began to break apart as it entered the Earth's atmosphere at about 6:00pm on 15 February before crashing near McAllen, Texas, according to local media.
Assuring the public that there is little risk to their safety, NASA said in a statement: "Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow as they travel through the atmosphere, breaking into small fragments before hitting the ground. Meteorites cool rapidly and generally are not a risk to the public."
As well as assuring the public, the space agency shared a report about the incident as well as an image of where the pieces of the meteor are likely to have landed.
"The meteor seen in the skies above McAllen is a reminder of the need for NASA and other organisations to increase our understanding and protection of Earth, to combine scientific and engineering expertise to advance human space exploration, to integrate terrestrial and planetary research for furthering our understanding of the solar system, and to promote successful space missions by mitigating risk," NASA said.
News of the meteor was also reported by numerous members of the public, and the flash it created was captured by what's known as a Geostationary Lightning Mapper just before 5:30pm.
Just like you'd imagine from the name, the lightning mapper is more traditionally used to map lightning, but NWS confirmed that there was no thunderstorm activity in the area at the time the image was captured.
Reacting to the incredible doorcam footage, one viewer wrote: "Strange how animals pick up the danger cue much faster than humans."
"Idk why but I was expecting it to hit the car," added a second, while a third remarked: "I thought the bird was being sucked into a meteor vortex."
A fourth couldn't help but joke: "Imagine trying to explain that to your insurance company."