Spectacular Fireball Lights Up Night Sky Across Five US Midwest States

On the evening of Tuesday, February 10, 2026, a brilliant white and green fireball streaked across the sky, captivating onlookers across at least five states in the American Midwest. This celestial event was widely documented by a variety of recording devices, ranging from residential doorbell cameras to automotive dashcams, sparking immediate interest from the public and the scientific community alike. The American Meteor Society (AMS) noted the scale of the sighting, processing more than 120 individual reports from witnesses who observed the phenomenon from various vantage points.

The sighting occurred at approximately 11:32 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, which corresponds to 04:32 UTC on February 11. The luminous display was visible to residents in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin, covering a significant portion of the region. Lasting for roughly five seconds, the event was typical of a fast-burning object entering the Earth's atmosphere. Following a detailed reconstruction of the object's trajectory, NASA experts concluded that the fireball was likely a small fragment of an asteroid that completely incinerated at a high altitude.

Initial visibility of the cosmic visitor was recorded at an altitude of approximately 47 to 48 miles (about 76 kilometers) above the Trinity area in Indiana. Moving in a southeasterly direction, the object traveled at a velocity of nearly 29,000 miles per hour (roughly 13 kilometers per second or 47,000 kilometers per hour). This high-speed entry created a friction-induced glow that was visible for hundreds of miles across the Midwestern landscape.

The object traversed about 48 miles (77 kilometers) through the atmosphere before it was estimated to have broken apart at a height of 27 miles (43 kilometers) over Laura, Ohio, situated northwest of Dayton. The brightness of the bolide was estimated at a magnitude of -3 or greater, firmly placing it within the official classification of a fireball. Such a magnitude indicates the object was significantly brighter than the planet Venus in the night sky.

NASA’s analysis of the object's speed, which was deemed relatively slow compared to fragments originating from comets, allowed scientists to classify the body as asteroidal in origin. Unlike other celestial events recorded earlier in 2026, this specific occurrence was not associated with any known or scheduled meteor shower. Instead, the incident aligns with the Northern Hemisphere's "fireball season," a period spanning from February to April characterized by an increased frequency of bright, sporadic meteors.

From a scientific perspective, the distinct bright green glow often associated with such meteors is frequently attributed to the chemical makeup of the space rock; in similar cases, such hues have been linked to the presence of nickel. Because the object disintegrated at an altitude exceeding 27 miles, experts do not believe any fragments survived the descent to reach the Earth's surface, making recovery efforts unnecessary. The comprehensive data gathered by both the AMS and NASA provided a high degree of accuracy for the trajectory analysis, confirming the harmless conclusion of the asteroid fragment's journey in the upper atmosphere.