A Houston family is counting their luck that no one was hurt after a cantaloupe-sized meteor crashed through the roof of their home and ricocheted around an empty bedroom. The space rock is most likely a fragment of the meteorite that witnesses saw smash into pieces with a thud in the deep blue skies of Texas.
This exploding space rock is one of several other “fireballs” spotted streaking across the United States over the past few days. These unusually frequent light shows are the result of a special trend that scientists don’t yet fully understand.
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At least 180 people reported seeing a streak of light about 29 miles (47 kilometers) above Houston and hearing an explosion equivalent to about 26 tons of TNT, the American Meteor Society said. Subsequent simulations revealed that multiple meteorite fragments likely reached the ground north of the city.
Local news stations later reported that one of these pieces of debris had struck a home in the Spring, Ohio area. Photos and videos show that the space rock crashed through the roof, bounced off the floor, returned to the ceiling, and finally ended up next to the TV. Homeowner Shelley James called the local fire department, who initially thought it was a piece of airplane debris (before the fireball was widely known). However, upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a stone.
James told KHOU 11 that she first heard a “loud bang” from the room next door, and after finding the hole, she believed it “looked like a piece of a meteorite.” She added that she was initially angry about the damage, but then was “very excited… but also a little scared.”
James joked that she was a big sci-fi fan and would probably keep the meteorite. But scientists may want to borrow the space rock and study it to see what it can tell us about the broader solar system.
The story is reminiscent of a nearly similar incident in Europe earlier this month. Fragments of a bright fireball tore a hole the size of a soccer ball through the roof of a house in a small German town and into a bedroom. Several other buildings are also believed to have been affected by debris from that fireball.
Amazing fireball!
Fireballs – which occur when large meteorites break up in the atmosphere due to intense friction with the air, flare up and release energy in the form of bright light – have been occurring with unusual frequency over the past week.
The barrage began last Tuesday (March 17), when a car-sized meteor smashed spectacularly across Ohio’s daytime sky, emitting a powerful sonic boom and shattering some windows on the ground near Cleveland. After this aerial explosion, the meteorite also reached the ground, and some potential debris was subsequently recovered. (Daytime fireballs are often associated with sonic booms because the most powerful explosions are only seen while the sun is still up.)
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Then, on Sunday evening (March 22), the day after the Texas fireball, another fiery meteor was spotted streaking over California. A separate NASA report said the space rock had been seen by more than 200 people and was also seen in parts of Arizona and Nevada.
Finally, on Monday night (March 23), locals reported a second small fireball over Ohio. The event, the fourth fireball in the past seven days, has been recorded by the American Meteor Society but has not yet been reported by NASA.
A NASA representative commented on X’s post about the unusual frequency of fireballs, but provided no explanation. There are no ongoing meteor showers or known asteroid showers that could explain this recent activity.
However, other experts point out that fireballs are almost always more common between February and April, with some years seeing up to a 30% increase in sightings during this time, according to EarthSky.com. This phenomenon, called the “spring fireball,” is likely a result of the Earth’s position relative to the sun and other parts of the solar system. But researchers aren’t entirely sure how or why it happens.
At least nine large fireballs have been observed over the United States since early February, according to NASA’s Space Alerts page.
Please note the following
It is extremely rare for a meteorite to fall in a populated area. However, recent incidents in Houston and Germany are important reminders that these space rocks pose a slight risk to people and their property.
Another warning occurred in June 2025, when a meteorite punched a hole in the roof of a Georgia home that was later determined to be older than Earth.
Meteorites crashed into people’s bedrooms in New Jersey in 2023 and British Columbia in 2021. And in 2022, a house in California was gutted after being hit by what appeared to be a fireball from debris (although it remains unclear whether this was the actual cause of the fire).
In 2021, a small space rock fell and scorched a driveway in southwestern England, and in January 2025, a similar encounter was captured on a Canadian home’s doorbell camera.
And in 2023, a pebble-sized meteorite is thought to have struck a French woman as she was drinking coffee on her porch. This is believed to be the second known direct collision between humans and a meteorite, after an Alabama woman was injured in 1954 when a large rock crashed through her roof while she was sleeping.
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