On March 17, witnesses in Pittsburgh reported seeing what appeared to be a burning object streaking through the sky, describing it as 'a rocket or something like a meteor'

There have been more widely witnessed meteor fireballs around the globe in the first three months of 2026 than at any point since records started being kept by AMS in 2011

These bright streaks of light, created when space rocks burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, can be potentially dangerous if a large enough piece reaches the ground and strikes people or homes, but this is considered an extremely rare event.

Recent reported fireballs include widespread sightings over the US, in Pennsylvania and Ohio, Texas and California, and in other countries such as Australia and Turkey. 

March 2026 has stood out the most, as there were far more events seen by over 50 and 100 people, fireballs lasting longer than four seconds and meteors producing loud 'sonic booms' - when a meteor shoots through the atmosphere at speeds over 25,000 mph.

For example, one fireball over Germany on March 8 was reported by 3,229 people. Several other widely visible events had hundreds of witnesses each this month.

Overall, nearly a thousand more fireballs have been spotted in this year's first three months than were detected a decade ago, when only 1,175 were seen in 2016.

However, skeptics have challenged the society's analysis that these are all natural phenomena taking place during a random uptick in space traffic streaking past the planet.

Most notably, one fireball over Texas on March 17 has been widely theorized to be a genuine UFO, after it was seen defying the normal trajectory of a shooting star.

Witnesses across Red Oak captured the shocking moments when an orange fireball streaking through the night sky suddenly turned back up into the air instead of crashing to Earth.

Hundreds of people across the western US reported seeing a mysterious green flash ripple across the sky on March 22

'Not your typical burn-up trajectory. UFO or space rock? You decide,' one person posted online after seeing the strange fireball turning and zig-zagging over Texas.

AMS has pushed back on the claims that anything besides harmless asteroid fragments has entered Earth's atmosphere this year, saying that every piece of a meteorite recovered has been a common rock seen falling from space for years.

READ MORE

EXCLUSIVE

• Trump insiders told me the president has a bombshell speech revealing DECADES of UFO secrets ready to go... here's when he will finally tell the world the truth

'The recovered specimens from Ohio and Germany are achondritic HEDs with mineral compositions formed over billions of years on differentiated asteroids,' researchers revealed in a statement.  

Achondritic HEDs refer to a special group of meteorites. Achondritic means these are stony meteorites without small round grains, called chondrules, that most common meteorites have. They formed from melted and cooled rock, like volcanic rocks on Earth.

HED stands for Howardite–Eucrite–Diogenite. These are three closely related types of achondrites that all came from the same large asteroid, Vesta, which sits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The meteor society added that there was no current threat from this surge in meteorite impacts. There was also no risk of a massive space rock colliding with the planet and devastating humanity.

'The objects involved range from pebble-sized to a few [feet] across and are part of the normal continuum of material that Earth encounters. None posed a danger beyond localized effects.'

However, AMS did acknowledge that one of these impacts severely damaged the roof of a woman's home in Houston on March 21.

The meteorite that landed in Sherrie James's home just outside Houston on March 21

Over the last decades, the first quarter of 2026 has seen the most fireballs worldwide, suggesting that more meteors are passing Earth than ever before

NASA said the three-foot-long rock that weighed over a ton prior to colliding with Sherrie James's house was traveling at 35,000 mph before most of it burned up in the atmosphere.

A tiny chunk of the meteor survived and struck the woman's home with such force that it ripped through the ceiling of her daughter's bedroom, ricocheted off the floor, and hit the ceiling again before landing on an empty bed.

AMS said part of the reason for the massive surge in fireballs being reported to them by the public could be because of AI chatbots.

In 2025, there were only 15 fireballs witnessed by more than 50 people in the first three months of the year. There have already been 38 in 2026

When people see a bright fireball, witnesses often ask ChatGPT, Siri, Grok or Google’s AI 'I just saw a fireball - where do I report it?' and the AI directs them straight to the AMS website.

This can cause each big event to get more reports than it would have in the past. However, the report noted that AI likely only explains the higher number of witnesses per event, not the actual increase in loud sonic booms or the meteorites striking Earth.

The last time there were more than 2,000 fireballs seen in Earth's atmosphere before the start of April was 2021.  

RELATED VIDEOS

AI will be ready to score full marks on one of the world's most challenging knowledge tests branded Humanity's Last Exam (HLE) in a matter of months, developers claim (Stock Photo)

'We wanted to create this close-ended academic benchmark, set to the frontier of expert humans, that only a handful of people on earth can really solve,' he said.

'We've seen over the past few years insane progress on these language models. It's impressive, model builders have really done a great job at improving these reasoning models.'

Kate Olszewska, a product manager at Google DeepMind added: 'If we truly cared about this as the only thing in life, I think we could get to it pretty quickly.' 

Anthropic - the company behind the Claude AI system - has achieved a score of 34.2 per cent in HLE and is improving its marks at a rapid pace.

AI returning a score of 100 per cent in the exam would be a significant development given the test is 'designed to be the final closed-ended academic benchmark of its kind', according to its authors.

It means that if the technology cracks the HLE, it will need to be tested on questions no human knows the answer to in future.

The test was created by researchers at Scale and the Center for AI Safety, a non-profit organisation, to examine both the AI's breadth of knowledge and its depth of reasoning.

Illustration: Jacey

Experts from roughly 50 countries submitted 70,000 questions for consideration in response to a global appeal in September 2024 which offered a $500,000 prize pot.

They had to require a short unambiguous answer and be difficult to find on the internet.

The list was whittled down to 13,000 after questions which any existing model could answer were removed from consideration.

Some of the 2,500 that were chosen have since been removed or edited following feedback from users. 

They require a wide-range of expertise - from knowledge of biology to proficiency in languages - and a large number of them have remained secret in a bid to stop systems benefiting from answers being publicly discussed online.

Success in HLE would evoke memories of IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue defeating world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a game in 1997, confounding most experts' predictions.

Since then, a string of major AI benchmarks have been cleared including the multi-disciplinary Massive Multitask Language Understanding, released in 2020, which was canned after systems began finding it too easy, often scoring above 90 per cent.

As AI approaches the stage where it can master human-made tests, expanding beyond the existing limits of human knowledge has increasingly become the main focus of developers, Ms Olszewska added.

But there will always be room for human specialism, according to Zhang, with physical fields such as surgery, as well as decision-based skills including judgment and creativity harder for AI to master. 

RELATED VIDEOS

The satellite image on the left captured an object, known as a transient, passing over Earth. On the right, the same satellite revealed the object had moved moments later

Photos from the 1940s and 1950s revealed thousands of bright spots called transients appearing in Earth orbit during the world's early nuclear tests 

The new traces found in Busko's analysis are tantalizingly similar, he wrote.

'By analyzing pairs of plates taken in rapid sequence (about 30 minutes apart) of the same sky regions, we find evidence of transients similar to those previously reported by the VASCO Project,' he added in the study published in arXiv.

Many of the mysterious bright spots in both sets of data predate the launch of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik-1, which entered orbit in October 1957, and cannot be explained away as the result of human activity.

The new research corroborated this by analyzing 98,000 photographic plates from separate sky surveys, also from the mid-1950s, taken at the Hamburg Observatory with a 1.2m camera. 

Busko and his team looked at pairs of plates with the same field of view, separated by a few minutes, looking for objects that are different between the two, and discounting factors such as dirt on the plates. 

The plates were digitized through the APPLAUSE archive, which contains billions of recorded sources from historical astronomical images.

The researchers found 'glints' that were startlingly similar to those uncovered by the VASCO project. 

Out of an initial batch of 41 plates examined so far, Busko reported identifying 70 candidate flashes, which were later refined to 35 strong candidates after careful visual review.

Transients were more likely to be spotted the day after a nuclear test was conducted, eliminating the possibility of the spots be a result of the explosion 

Busko wrote: 'As discussed … unresolved flashes lasting less than a second naturally appear sharper and more circular than stellar images, particularly on long-exposure plates where stars are significantly blurred by seeing and tracking errors.'

'Such profiles are therefore an expected observational signature of sub-second optical flashes, further reinforcing the transient interpretation.'

The researchers said that the 'transients' bear the hallmarks of rapid flashes - similar to those found by the VASCO project. 

These bursts of light appear suddenly in one image but vanish in the next, suggesting an extremely short-lived event lasting less than a second.

Busko noted that the results from the 1950s astronomical plates 'seem to independently confirm the presence of such transients,' with detected events appearing to be 'extremely short-duration flashes.'

He now hopes to digitize more of the archive and analyze more plates - with a goal to confirm transients already identified by the VASCO project. Future phases of the research will expand beyond the initial 41 plates to include additional photographic collections from other observatories across Europe.

He believes that the new evidence is potentially hugely important for research into life beyond Earth.

'While such transients are difficult to reconcile within a conventional astronomical framework, they are consistent with sub-second optical glints produced by sunlight reflecting from flat surfaces on rotating objects transiting above Earth's atmosphere,' the study reads.

'Given the potential implications for SETI-related research, establishing a robust observational basis for the reality and behavior of these events is of clear importance.'

The 'transients' seem to appear near the sites of nuclear tests

Villarroel's peer-reviewed study previously highlighted how the mysterious 'transients' do not seem to correspond to any Earthly explanation.

The study analyzed mysterious star-like objects seen in old photos from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey in California during the early nuclear days of the US, UK, and Soviet Union. 

Specifically, researchers focused on 124 above-ground nuclear bomb tests conducted by the three nations, causing explosions in the open air.

Using digitized photographic sky surveys, Villarroel's team searched for light flashes that appeared in one frame but were completely absent in earlier and later exposures, ruling out known stars or natural cosmic sources.

The unknown objects appeared briefly and then vanished, and they were captured on camera before humans began launching any kind of devices into space, so they can't be explained as human-made craft.

Not only did the researchers find that UFO sightings went up on days when nuclear testing was taking place, but the total number of transients spotted in the photos also increased by 8.5 percent.

These unidentified objects were most likely to appear the day after a nuclear test, making explanations that the sightings were just streaks or clouds created by the explosions unlikely.

'Nature can always surprise us with something we could never have imagined. So, I cannot exclude that there might be some other explanation that is just outside my imagination,' Villarroel told NewsNation.

'But from what I see, I cannot find any other consistent explanation than that we are looking at something artificial,' she added.

Transients were more likely to be spotted the day after a nuclear test was conducted, eliminating the possibility that the spots were a result of the explosion.

The statistical pattern suggested that these flashes were not random but followed measurable trends linked to historical testing periods, strengthening the case that the events were not simple photographic artifacts.

Villarroel could not say for sure whether the objects spotted in Earth's orbit in the 1950s were still there, but noted that if they were truly constructed by a non-human intelligence, they may still be circling the planet.

If confirmed, researchers believe the objects could represent some of the earliest recorded evidence of unidentified structures operating above Earth's atmosphere.

The scientists found over 100,000 transients during their observations, with about 35,000 in the northern hemisphere alone.

The study found nearly 60 of these artificial objects floating in orbit on days when there was nuclear testing, and witnesses reported seeing UFOs.

That number went down to 40 transients on days when only one of these two events took place.

Taken together, Busko's independent verification and Villarroel's earlier discovery have created what scientists describe as one of the most intriguing unresolved astronomical puzzles from the early atomic age, one that researchers say could reshape how scientists interpret unexplained phenomena recorded long before the dawn of the space era.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the Earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, California on January 15

The agency previously revealed that astronaut Mike Fincke (second from left) experienced the issue, which cut Crew 11's mission short

Mr Fincke was five and a half months into his latest space station mission when the problem struck like 'a very, very fast lightning bolt'.

'My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress,' he said, with all six gathering around him.

'It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds.'

Mr Fincke said he can´t provide any more details about his medical episode. The space agency wants to make sure that other astronauts do not feel that their medical privacy will be compromised if something happens to them, he explained.

The space station's ultrasound machine came in handy when the event occurred, he revealed, and he said he has gone through numerous tests since returning to Earth.

NASA is poring through other astronauts' medical records to see if any related instances might have happened in space.

The Crew-11 astronauts safely splashed back to Earth following NASA's first medical evacuation in 65 years of spaceflight.

The decision was made to bring the crew - including NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov - home a month ahead of schedule.

This was the first time a crew on board the ISS had their mission ended early due to medical reasons

Last month, Mr Fincke identified himself as the one who fell ill to put an end to swirling public speculation.

He said he still feels bad that his illness caused the spacewalk to be cancelled - it would have been his 10th spacewalk but first for crewmate Zena Cardman - and resulted in an early return for her and their two other crewmates.

The crew were taken straight to hospital after being brought back to Earth by SpaceX.

'I've been very lucky to be super healthy, so this was very surprising for everyone,' Mr Fincke said.

However, he said he has stopped apologising to everybody after NASA's new administrator Jared Isaacman ordered him to.

'This wasn't you - this was space, right?' his colleagues assured him. 'You didn't let anybody down.'

The astronaut, who has been to space four times, says he hopes he can return one day.

When news of a medical emergency first broke, Mr Isaacman said he decided to bring the crew home out of an abundance of caution.

He noted that the astronaut's medical episode was considered 'serious' and would require additional medical care on Earth.

The evacuation followed NASA's Spaceflight Human-System Standard, which mandates contingency return procedures whenever onboard medical resources are insufficient.

Although statistical models have long predicted that such an event could occur roughly once every three years, the plan has never before been used.

Located 250 miles above Earth, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration, including eventual missions to return humans to the moon and onward to Mars.

The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

RELATED VIDEOS