A car dashcam recorded this image of the object. Image Credit: X / Daniel Bonds / John Eckard

An unidentified object was seen by numerous witnesses across multiple US states earlier this week.

Social media was awash with reports of a flaming object careening down from the heavens that was visible across several southern US states back on June 26th.

In one case, a woman from South Carolina called the police to report a “giant ball of fire” near Spartanburg, while a firefighter in East Tennessee recalled a similar sighting in a post on X.

He described it as being “like a mini sun falling with a tail of fire.”

The phenomenon was quickly confirmed by the National Weather Service.

“It is not certain, but the satellite-based lightning detection shows a streak within cloud-free sky over the NC/VA border, over Gasbury, VA,” the service wrote.

“This streak was detected between 12:51 to 12:56 pm.”

But what exactly was it ?

“Looking at the videos, this is very low in the atmosphere,” said meteorologist Brad Panovich. “I am curious if this was a piece of space debris, a rocket body or degrading space junk.”

“For something to be that bright in the middle of the day, it was most likely burning up in the atmosphere.”

“If it were a meteor, it would have had to be very large to be that bright in the middle of the day.”

There were no reports of any damage caused by anything falling from the sky, though some witnesses reported a loud booming sound that shook their windows.

You can watch a news report with clips of the object below.