Alex Jerome and Katie Bownds captured the Louisiana meteor fireball after it streaked across the skies of south Louisiana shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, June 28. Jerome submitted footage from a security camera on his property in Denham Springs, while Bownds sent video from a doorbell camera in St. Francisville.
The American Meteor Society says a fireball is an exceptionally bright meteor with a visual magnitude of -3 or brighter, roughly as bright as the planet Venus. It also says fireballs come from larger pieces of space debris, typically pebble-sized to about a meter across, and can be visible over hundreds of miles.
Sky9 cameras over Baton Rouge
Multiple cameras in the Sky9 camera network recorded the fireball or the bright flash it produced. The clearest view came from the camera atop Our Lady of the Lake Hospital on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge, and other Sky9 cameras caught the brief illumination in the pre-dawn sky.
The sightings line up with what the American Meteor Society lists on its website, which showed reports from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. Most witnesses described the fireball in the eastern or southeastern sky.
American Meteor Society sightings
The broad spread of reports suggests a bright object high enough and large enough to be seen well beyond south Louisiana. That fits the society’s description of fireballs as visible over hundreds of miles, including at times during daylight.
There is no indication the fireball survived its fiery passage through the atmosphere to reach the ground. For readers who saw the flash, the practical takeaway is simple: the event was skyward and brief, and the record of it now comes from camera footage and sighting reports rather than any recovered debris.
