This Suspected Meteorite Tore Through the Roof of a Suburban Houston Home

A bright meteor streaked across the afternoon sky and exploded over southeast Texas this weekend

Kunjal Bastola | Editorial Intern

March 24, 2026

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Many residents of southeast Texas had their Saturday afternoons interrupted by an ultrabright meteor streaking across the daytime sky and a thunderous boom. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the “fireball”—a meteor that outshines Venus—around 4:40 p.m. on March 21, per NASA.  

Sherrie James, who lives in a suburban Houston neighborhood, got an even more personal encounter with the space rock. A suspected piece of it crashed through the roof of her home, after which it bounced off the floor of an upstairs bedroom, hit the ceiling and finally landed by a TV, James tells KHOU 11’s Jason Miles.

“We heard a big boom. My grandson went to check and said there was a hole in the ceiling … then I saw the rock,” she says.

Houston homeowner gets attention after possible meteorite crash

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The object is probably a meteorite, a rock that fell from outer space and hit Earth’s surface, a planetary scientist at Rice University confirmed to James, per KPRC 2 Click2Houston’s Jaewon Jung.

Around 48.5 tons of space rock are estimated to plummet toward the planet each day, but when they enter the atmosphere—at which point they’re called meteors or “shooting stars”—most completely burn up. Only about five to ten percent of that material reaches the ground.

James immediately contacted the fire department, and officials initially thought the object had fallen off a plane. A few minutes later, however, they informed her that a meteor had possibly just exploded over northern Houston, per KHOU 11.

“By that time, there [were] calls and news crews here, and the whole city went crazy,” James Dickerson, a district fire chief, tells the Houston Chronicle’s Jarrod Wardwell.

NASA later confirmed that a one-ton, three-foot-wide meteor had zoomed across the sky above part of Texas. It became visible at an altitude of 49 miles above Stagecoach, a town northwest of Houston. Then, the meteor traveled southeast at 35,000 miles per hour and exploded 29 miles above Bammel, a northern Houston suburb.

#MeteorSighting: Eyewitnesses in Texas observed a bright fireball today, March 21, at 4:40 p.m. CDT. Current data indicates that the meteor became visible at 49 miles above Stagecoach, northwest of Houston. It moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel,… pic.twitter.com/nTXroI89XI

— NASA Space Alerts (@NASASpaceAlerts) March 22, 2026

The space rock, which was a piece of an asteroid, unleashed the energy of 26 tons of TNT when it fragmented, creating a pressure wave that caused loud booms, according to NASA.

Resident Amy Campbell tells KHOU 11’s Randy Klein that the noise had a “long, low rumble” that resembled an explosion. Others say the sounds shook their houses. Resident Wendy Camardelle Heppner tells the outlet it “sounded like thunder,” despite “clear skies.”

This event isn’t the only recently reported fireball. On the morning of March 17, eyewitnesses in several states and a part of Canada saw a fiery meteor before it exploded with a thunderous boom over northeast Ohio, after traveling at 40,000 miles per hour. It originated from a seven-ton, six-foot-wide asteroid and released the energy of 250 tons of TNT when it burst.

Meteorite hunters quickly flocked to the area in hopes of finding fragments, which typically range between the size of a pebble and a fist.

Luckily, James in the Houston suburbs already has what is likely one of these rare finds—and the incident didn’t harm anyone. The rock is roughly the size of a golf ball and unusually heavy, per KPRC 2 Click2Houston.

“I do have intentions of selling it,” James tells the outlet. “I’ve had quite a few offers.”

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Kunjal Bastola is an editorial intern with Smithsonian magazine.