WATCH: Texans Hear Boom, Feel Ground Shake When Meteorites Hit Earth

Neighbors heard a boom and felt the ground shake on Wednesday when a meteor burst through the atmosphere near McAllen, Texas.

NASA officials said data shows meteorites did slam into the ground, and the meteor weighed approximately 1,o00 pounds, and measured two feet in diameter, KIII reported Thursday.

NASA’s summary detailed the event:

The angle and speed of entry, along with signatures in weather radar imagery, are consistent with other naturally occurring meteorite falls. Radar and other data indicate that meteorites did reach the ground from this event.

Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow as they travel through the atmosphere, breaking into small fragments before hitting the ground. Meteorites cool rapidly and generally are not a risk to the public.

Officials believe the meteorites fell near FM 755 northeast of Rio Grande City, and urged anyone who might come across a fragment to contact the Smithsonian.

Surveillance footage recorded outside a home caught the loud boom. When it happened, birds in the area flew into the air, and the camera itself shook.

Neighbors described their windows rattling and what felt like an earthquake shaking the ground, according to a Fox 4 report:

“Was informed by my Federal partners that Houston Air Traffic Control received reports from two aircrafts that they saw a meteorite west of McAllen,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said in a social media post on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, conservative political candidate Mayra Flores relayed the news to her followers, then asked people to pray:

Weather satellites also caught the meteor’s blast of light, and “The National Weather Service in Brownsville used a lightning-detecting tool, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, or GLM, to pinpoint the location of the fireball,” the KIII report said.

Meteoroids are described as objects in space that can be as small as grains of dust or small asteroids, per the NASA website.

“When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or ‘shooting stars’ are called meteors,” the agency said.