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© Jared Rackley via XStill from video captured by NWS Pittsburgh’s Jared Rackley via X.
The one-ton space rock broke apart nearly 30 miles above the city, unleashing a violent sonic boom equivalent to 26 tons of TNT. A dark, jagged fragment smashed through a residential roof and even ricocheted around a bedroom like a cosmic pinball.
This would have been stunning in itself, except there were more such meteor strikes. During the first three months of 2026, our planet waded through an unusually dense shooting gallery. The American Meteor Society (AMS) has tracked a staggering wave of large, bright meteors — known as fireballs — lighting up skies from California to Germany.
Earth sweeps up tons of space dust every day. Usually, this material is the size of a grain of sand and burns up harmlessly in the upper atmosphere. But right now, we are colliding with much bigger rocks. And scientists are scrambling to figure out why.
Mike Hankey, a researcher who manages fireball reporting tools for the AMS, analyzed data stretching back to 2011. He shared his findings in a recent AMS report, noting this meteorite season is distinctly visible.
"After years of stable baseline activity, something appears to have shifted," Hankey wrote in the AMS report. "The signal is consistent across multiple metrics."
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© Intuitive MachinesRed circle indicates crater rim, black circle delimits two crater radii from the rim, filled circles mark locations
of pre-existing craters that are still discernable under 38° incidence angle. B1 = block 1, B2 = block 2, NT = northern ejecta tongue, BF = block field. Image width 950 meters, north is up.
of pre-existing craters that are still discernable under 38° incidence angle. B1 = block 1, B2 = block 2, NT = northern ejecta tongue, BF = block field. Image width 950 meters, north is up.
The crater is 225 meters wide and formed in April or May 2024, Robinson said. According to predictions based on other lunar landmarks, a crater that big should form only once in 139 years. The discovery can help highlight the risks impacts pose to future astronauts.
© NASA
"Spring is fireball season," says Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office. "For reasons we don't fully understand, the rate of very bright meteors climbs 10% to 30% during weeks around the vernal equinox."
The Ohio and Texas meteors landed squarely in the middle of the season. Onlookers saw the Ohio fireball on March 17th only 3 days before the equinox. The Texas fireball appeared one day after the equinox on March 21st. Both were visible in broad daylight, with sonic booms and meteorites. One fragment reportedly punched through the roof of a home in suburban Houston.
"Meteorite falls--fragments that actually hit the ground--are more common in spring as well," says Cooke.
Comment: The previous narrative used to be 'once in a lifetime'. Fast forward to multiple witnesses in over 15 states, as well as in Canada, Europe and Russia, all within less than one month. The narrative is obviously now "it's nothing unusual". See also:
Fire in the Sky
Caltech astrophysicist fatally shot on porch of his rural home
At the time of his death, he was focused on studying comets and asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth.
Comment: Careful with the 'once-in-a-century' assumption. In fact, now that this new bar has been set, here's a 'joke' for moon researchers: expect more lunar impacts in the coming years, and maybe months.
See also: The mystery of the Ohio and Texas fireballs