The exploding UFO that could be heard throughout South Texas, on Wednesday, was a falling meteorite according to a NASA report.

Two pilots flying over Houston reported witnessing the sky event. Reports to the FBI confirmed that the meteorite became an atmospheric fireball at about 6 p.m. 

Meanwhile, most residents of the area heard the explosion. Many residents reported hearing the ground-rattling blast in the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the city of Mission late Wednesday afternoon.

There were wide reports of a ground-rattling blast throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the cities of Mission, and McAllen. The explosion was heard as far away as Austin.

Mission Police Chief Cesar Torres indicated that there was a "large explosion or a boom within the city." 

Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra held a news conference on Thursday.

"We believe we've solved the mystery of the loud explosion." Guerra cited the FBI report to reassure local residents.

Exploding UFO explained

According to the NASA website, “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,” the report explained.

Reassuring Texans about UFOs

A meteorite strike usually happens a few times a year. 

This year a record number of meteors have already been detected. UFOs seem to be everywhere. 

Sheriff Guerra pointed out that people are concerned after multiple objects over US airspace were shot down in recent days.

This month, 4 UFOs were shot down over the US and Canada. And only one of them has been identified. It is unprecedented in peaceful times for the US Air Force to have so much action over the Continental US.

US military fighter jets shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the coast of South Carolina. And Americans were surprised that the balloon was tracked from Montana across the US to where it was downed.

Days later a high-flying object was shot out of the sky in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. And the next day an unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada.

The US military shot down a fourth flying object over US airspace this month over Lake Huron Michigan. Similar to the last 2, it was described as an octagonal structure with strings about the size of a small car.  And no payload was ever recovered to make a better identification.

US Rep. Mónica de la Cruz, who represents the area said, "It can frighten our residents, and we want to make sure that we give as much information to our residents to help them feel safe and secure here in our local community."

"Obviously with all these incidents close, you can imagine what our constituents' and our citizens' fears were," Guerra added.

NWS uses Geostationary Lightning Mapper

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Brownsville, Texas, said a satellite system designed to measure lightning strikes detected the apparent meteorite. There were no storms in the area at the time.

The exploding UFO was tracked by multiple sources including the NWS Geostationary Lightning Mapper. This is a satellite-borne single channel, near-infrared optical detector.

 It orbits on the GOES-16 satellite to detect lightning and other objects. The GLM measures a dedicated region including the United States with continuous views capable of detecting almost any sky event.