When a space rock (known as a meteoroid) rushes into Earth’s atmosphere and ignites, we call the resulting blaze a meteor[1]. Occasionally, a meteoroid enters on a shallow trajectory, flashes across the sky, and then boomerangs back into space. Below are ten spectacular “Earth‑grazers” that did exactly that.
10 Japan Earth‑Grazer
On March 29, 2006, a luminous fireball sliced across several Japanese cities, allowing a network of stations to chart its path with precision. The culprit was a meteoroid weighing roughly 100 kg (220 lb) that entered at an altitude of 87 km (54 mi). It skated about 1,000 km (621 mi) over Japan for 35 seconds before exiting Earth’s grasp.
This marked the third scientifically confirmed Earth‑grazer. Researchers employed photographs, TV footage, telescopic data, and specialized software to nail down its characteristics. Despite modern equipment, Earth‑grazers remain exceedingly rare, and most entries on this list belong to this elusive class.
9 Fast‑Moving Fireball
On October 13, 1990, two astronomical stations observed an Earth‑grazer streaking over Czechoslovakia and Poland. Independent witnesses in Denmark and elsewhere corroborated the sighting. The fireball stemmed from a 44‑kg (97‑lb) meteoroid that dipped to a minimum altitude of 98 km (61 mi) while racing at roughly 42 km s⁻¹ (26 mi s⁻¹)—about twenty times faster than the swiftest manned aircraft.
Visible for nearly ten seconds, the meteoroid covered 409 km (254 mi) before re‑emerging into space with reduced speed and a loss of 350 g (0.77 lb) of mass. NASA’s simulations matched observations, confirming its escape. A Czech camera from the European Fireball Network captured the object at its highest point.
8 The Great Meteor
When an Earth‑grazer breaks low enough, it can fragment into a series of fireballs moving in concert—a phenomenon known as a “meteor procession.” Only four such cases are documented. One occurred on July 20, 1860, when painter Frederic Church and his wife, honeymooning in Catskill, New York, witnessed a line of bright orange meteors sweeping the sky. Poet Walt Whitman also chronicled the event in his poem “Year of Meteors (1859‑60).”
Hundreds across the United States saw the procession, which spanned over 1,600 km (994 mi) from the Great Lakes region, over the Hudson River, and onward toward the Atlantic. After this extensive horizontal journey, the fragments escaped Earth’s atmosphere and vanished back into space.
7 Cometary Fragment
About 20,000 years ago, a massive comet shattered, giving rise to Comet Encke, a frequent visitor to Earth’s neighborhood. On June 10, 2012, a 16‑kg (35‑lb) meteoroid from this comet entered the atmosphere roughly 100 km (62 mi) above eastern Spain, racing at an astonishing 105,000 km h⁻¹ (65,244 mph).
After descending to about 98 km (61 mi), the fireball began to climb again, exiting space over the Atlantic while shedding only 260 g (0.57 lb) and acquiring a thin fusion crust. The blaze traveled 510 km (317 mi) in 17 seconds, making it the faintest scientifically recorded Earth‑grazer—its brightness comparable to Venus—and the first such event linked to a meteor shower, specifically the Zeta Perseids, which stem from Comet Encke.
6 Christmas Eve Meteor
On the night of December 24, 2014, while holiday revelry filled homes, a 100‑kg (220‑lb) rock—about a meter in diameter—streaked across the sky at 68,400 km h⁻¹ (42,500 mph). Thirteen stations across Spain and Portugal logged this Earth‑grazer, which entered at 105 km (65 mi) above North Africa, dipped to 75 km (47 mi) over Spain, and then rose again over Portugal before finally exiting over the Atlantic, roughly 100 km (62 mi) from Galicia’s coast.
Designated SPMN241214, the meteoroid originated from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its close Earth encounter nudged its orbit, though it continues circling the Sun. Footage from the University of Huelva showed a bright, thin trail, while recordings from Guadalajara highlighted the meteor’s leisurely pace—lasting about a minute in total.
5 Zagami Meteorite
In October 1962, a Nigerian farmer near Zagami heard a loud blast, looked up, and saw a meteoroid strike just three meters away, leaving a 0.6‑m (2‑ft) crater and revealing an 18‑kg (40‑lb) Martian meteorite. This rock had been hurled from Mars by a comet impact 2.5 million years earlier.
Fast forward to November 1996, when NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor. Inside the probe, engineers tucked a small piece of the Zagami meteorite within a resin bubble. By September 1997, the spacecraft was orbiting Mars, effectively returning the rock to its home world. Though the orbiter is now inactive, it still circles Mars and is slated to eventually crash, giving the Zagami fragment a second, interplanetary journey.
4 Unconfirmed Earth‑Grazers
On October 3, 1996, a mysterious fireball crossed New Mexico’s night sky, vanished, and then, 100 minutes later, re‑appeared over California before exploding. Some hypothesize this was a single rock that bounced in the atmosphere, completing nearly a full Earth orbit before its final descent, though the event remains unverified.
Later, on September 21, 2012, thousands across the British Isles observed a slow‑moving fireball for about 40 seconds. Two and a half hours later, a similar blaze lit the skies over Canada and the United States. Finnish astronomer Esko Lyytinen suggested both sightings stemmed from one meteoroid that ignited over Ireland at 53 km (33 mi), then rose back into space, lost speed, and after a 155‑minute, full‑orbit loop, re‑entered over North America. While some experts question the data, the possibility of another Earth‑grazer persists.
3 Rare Aten Asteroid
Designated EN070807, this Earth‑grazer was recorded on August 7, 2007. It belongs to the Aten class—rocky bodies orbiting the Sun very close to Earth’s path, often intersecting our orbit and posing potential hazards.
European Fireball Network stations in the Czech Republic captured the event, later including it in a bi‑annual report alongside 44 conventional fireballs. Like its peers, EN070807 shed some mass while traversing the atmosphere, but the bulk of its material continues to drift through space.
2 Campo Del Cielo Meteorite
Four millennia ago, a sizable iron meteorite crashed in Argentina’s Campo del Cielo region. In 2012, Scottish artist Katie Paterson acquired a 680‑g (1.5‑lb) fragment, melted it at 1,700 °C (3,092 °F), and recast it to its original shape. The re‑formed meteorite was handed to the European Space Agency, then lofted aboard the ISS’s Georges Lemaître mission in July 2014.
After a brief stay aboard the station, the meteorite returned to Earth aboard the same spacecraft, enduring a fiery re‑entry in February 2015. This makes it a meteor that fell, left Earth, and then fell again—twice within our atmosphere—underscoring the notion that a rock need not be a one‑time visitor.
1 The Great Daylight Fireball
On August 10, 1972, at 2:30 PM, a massive fireball blazed across Utah’s sky, traveling northward for over a minute and a half before exiting over Alberta, Canada. The object entered at roughly 54,100 km h⁻¹ (33,616 mph) and is estimated to have weighed up to 570 tons, stretching about 14 m (46 ft)—comparable to a truck, but far heavier.
At its highest point, the meteoroid reached an altitude of about 102 km (63 mi); by the time it escaped, it had shrunk to roughly 10 m (33 ft). The closest approach to Earth’s surface was a mere 58 km (36 mi) above Montana, where observers reported audible sonic booms. Satellite data, video recordings, and photographs (including one over Wyoming’s Teton Range) documented the event. Had it impacted, the blast would have equated to an atomic bomb’s power, but thankfully it chose a lofty escape.