Over Two Dozen Fireballs Streak over Southern US

The term "fireball" has various meanings depending on it's context.  In astronomy terms it means a meteor that appears brighter than the planet Venus in the sky.  A meteor is a piece of dust or rock (some no larger than a grain of sand) that enter Earth's atmosphere and become super heated and leave a streak of light across the night sky. 

Larger meteors (the size of a pea or small pebble) are much brighter, when they burn up, and are thus called fireballs.

Some fireballs can be seen in broad daylight; yet this does not necessarily mean they are large enough to hit the ground and become a meteorite.

Last night, NASA's All Sky Fireball Network (click to link to the site) recorded over two dozen of these fireballs over the southern US.  

This post from Space Weather shows their orbits intersecting at planet Earth.   A very cool article, and a cool project.  

Orbits of a number of Fireballs that appeared in the last 24 hours.