--- title: Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know | TIME description: The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. Things have gotten a lot quieter since then, but that’s not to say everything has gone entirely still. Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere. canonical: https://time.com/video/crOUwlMG/ og:title: Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know og:description: The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. Things have gotten a lot quieter since then, but that’s not to say everything has gone entirely still. Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere. og:url: https://time.com/video/crOUwlMG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/crOUwlMG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know twitter:description: The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. Things have gotten a lot quieter since then, but that’s not to say everything has gone entirely still. Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/crOUwlMG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * World # Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know [Watch (HLS stream): Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/crOUwlMG.m3u8) (0:53)  _Published 2025-06-27. The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. Things have gotten a lot quieter since then, but that’s not to say everything has gone entirely still. Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere._ --- Jun 27, 2025 9:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [U.S. Sees Calmer Streets as Protests Remain Largely Peaceful](/video/r0jAkczy/) ### U.S. Sees Calmer Streets as Protests Remain Largely Peaceful [Is Puerto Rico Part of the U.S? Here's What to Know](/video/aOUzqQ0z/) ### Is Puerto Rico Part of the U.S? Here's What to Know [U.S Chemical Stockpile is Still Being Destroyed](/video/qnZQcbfF/) ### U.S Chemical Stockpile is Still Being Destroyed --- ## Transcript Earth lives inside a shooting gallery with thousands of objects totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA. Entering the atmosphere. What you're looking at is a meteor exploding in the skies over Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on June 26th. The explosion was accompanied by a sonic boom in Henry County, Georgia. One house was struck by debris that broke through the roof and landed inside the residence. There were no reported injuries. The meteor was known as a bolide, which is a rock big enough to explode in the sky, but small enough to be mostly incinerated before it reaches the ground. Only about 5% of meteors survive entry, with even a micrometeorite particle intact. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meteor Fragments Just Hit the Southeast U.S. Here’s What to Know","description":"The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. 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