Doorbell camera captures sonic boom as half-ton meteor crashes in Texas

While doorbell cameras primarily for security purposes, they often end up catching more things than someone stealing your parcel from your doorstep.

Over the years, we've seen a 'death whistle' caught on the handy device and the chilling footage of the moment a woman cried for help before being kidnapped.

But in terms of the most unbelievable footage captured from a doorbell camera, a sonic boom in Texas is certainly up there.

The footage, which was taken last year, was that shocking even NASA of all places stepped in to clarify what the situation.

So, what happened?

Well, the footage begins with what looks like any other Texas front yard - but things certainly take a dramatic turn.

A sonic boom can soon be heard, scaring off all the sitting birds in the area.

In case you're not familiar with sonic booms, they are created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound - so you can see why the birds were startled.

The sonic boom was captured on camera. (Twitter/@disdikmark)

The object in this instance just so happened to be a half-ton meteor (that's one which weighs almost 454 kg) and was later confirmed by NASA.

The meteor began to break apart as it entered the Earth's atmosphere at about 6:00pm on 15 February 2023 before crashing near McAllen, Texas, according to local media.

Assuring the public that there is little risk to their safety, NASA said in a statement: "Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow as they travel through the atmosphere, breaking into small fragments before hitting the ground.

"Meteorites cool rapidly and generally are not a risk to the public."

The space also agency shared a report about the incident as well as an image of where the pieces of the meteor are likely to have landed.

The moment was quite astonishing. (X/@disdikmark)

"The meteor seen in the skies above McAllen is a reminder of the need for NASA and other organisations to increase our understanding and protection of Earth, to combine scientific and engineering expertise to advance human space exploration, to integrate terrestrial and planetary research for furthering our understanding of the solar system, and to promote successful space missions by mitigating risk," NASA also said.

News of the meteor was also reported by numerous members of the public, and the flash it created was captured by what's known as a Geostationary Lightning Mapper just before 5:30pm.

Just like you'd imagine from the name, the lightning mapper is more traditionally used to map lightning, but NWS confirmed that there was no thunderstorm activity in the area at the time the image was captured.

Topics: NASA, Texas, Space, Science

Callum Jones

@CallumJ2709