A Fireball Burns a 300-Mile Path Over the Midwest

What happened

Late on Sunday 14 June 2026, a bright fireball streaked northwest across the mid-South. Space.com’s Anthony Wood reported on 16 June that more than 500 people had filed sightings with the American Meteor Society (AMS), and that some of them uploaded footage.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office posted an analysis under event ID 20260615-032626. It says the fireball was recorded by three NASA meteor cameras “and many other cameras/phones in the region.”

The footage

There are two kinds of video:

• NASA all-sky cameras (three stations): These recorded the fireball. The tracks were used to work out its start and end points, altitude and speed. NASA’s event page links the camera images and video under “NASA Images and Videos”.
• Witness uploads to the AMS: These are attached to AMS event 4372-2026, filed by members of the public.
• Space.com’s report: It carries footage of the fireball. Space.com credits the material to NASA and the AMS, and gives no clip lengths.

The NASA page gives a peak brightness of magnitude −7.38. That is about 16 times brighter than Venus and bright enough to be caught on phones across several states.

Timeline

• 14 June 2026, 10:26 pm CDT / 11:26 pm EDT: The fireball appears 60 miles above Tupelo, Mississippi.
• About 20 seconds later: It breaks up 34 miles above the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, about 300 miles away. The 20 seconds is worked out from NASA’s distance and speed; NASA doesn’t state a duration.
• 14–15 June: Reports reach the AMS from 14 states, logged as event 4372-2026.
• By 16 June: NASA has posted its analysis of event 20260615-032626, which Space.com links.
• 16 June, 12:00 pm EDT: Space.com publishes “Watch a fireball burn a 300 mile path above the Midwest US (video)”.

What witnesses reported

NASA lists the states where people filed reports: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Reports that wide are normal for a fireball that comes in at a shallow angle and stays high for hundreds of miles. People hundreds of miles apart can all see the same streak low on the horizon.

What the research found

1. NASA’s camera triangulation gives a precise track. The event page lists: