Passing Asteroid Lights Up South Florida Sky

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A fireball streaking across the sky Monday night was seen from Tampa to the northwest Bahamas.

So what was it?

CBS4 Chief Meteorologist Craig Setzer said it looks like it was a very close pass of asteroid 2021 GW4. He said it was likely passing about 9,000 miles above us and briefly struck the atmosphere while moving at 16,000 mph.

He added it literally passed inside the moon's orbit which is about 252,000 miles away from Earth.

The closest most asteroids usually get to Earth is about 1.3 million miles.