Bright fireball over Florida probably caused by space junk.

Witnesses In Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas have reported observing a bright fireball meteor at about 6.15 am local time (about 11.15 am GMT) on Saturday 8 November 2025, with some witnesses in Florida and Georgia also reporting a sonic boom. The fireball is described as having moved from northwest to southeast, appearing over southern Georgia and disappearing off the east coast of Florida. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. 

The 8 November 2025 Florida fireball seen from the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve in Titusville, Florida. Richard Gallagher/Florida Today.

Such are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry, which appears to have been the case on 8 November. The object was visibly quite large, was relatively slow moving, and could be seen to break into a number of pieces as it passed through the atmosphere, none of which are conclusively signs of a man made object, but which combined together make this more likely. However, the nature of that object is unclear; the most common explanation for such re-entries is material falling back to Earth from a rocket launch, but while such a launch had been planned in Florida for that morning, it had not been due until an hour after the fireball event, and was eventually cancelled due to weather concerns.

Heat map showing areas where sightings of the meteor were reported (warmer colours indicate more sightings), and the apparent path of the object (blue arrow). American Meteor Society.

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Nocticola vagus: A new species of parthenogenetic Nocticolid Cockroach from Florida and Vienna.

Nocticolids are a small group (39 described species in ten genera) of Cockroaches found in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, Papua-New Guinea, and Australia. They differ from other Cockroach groups in that they are flattened laterally rather than horizontally. Nocticolids are rather cryptic in their habits, and the group is not well studied in the wild; most of what we know about their biology comes from studies of colonies in labs, or the pet trade.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 5 May 2025, Junkai Wang of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, Alan Jeon of the Natural History Museum at Auburn University, and Anthony Cognato, also of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, describe a new, and apparently invasive, species of Nocticolid Cockroach from Florida and Vienna.

The new species was originally detected in the wild at University Park in Miami Dade County, Florida, where Alan Jeon collected several female specimens in June 2020.  In captivity, these were found to reproduce parthenogenetically, i.e. the female Cockroaches laid eggs without mating, which hatched into new females, also capable of producing fertile eggs without mating. This trait has not previously been recorded in Nocticolid Cockroaches, although it is known in several other Cockroach groups.

Because Nocticolid Cockroaches are not thought to be indigenous to the Americas, Wang et al. carried out a genetic analysis, in which they also included specimens from the US pet trade, which weren being traded under the name Nocticola sp. 'Malaysia', as well as specimens from a greenhouse at Schönbrunn  Zoo in  Vienna, Austria, where another all female colony of Nocticolid Cockroaches was reported.

The genetic study recovered all three populations as the same species, which Wang et al. name Nocticola vagus, where 'vagus' means 'wandering' in Latin, in reeference to the known distribution of the species. The original location of the Cockroaches traded as Nocticola sp. 'Malaysia' is unknown, but Nocticola vagus was recovered as the sister species to an un-named specimen from Vietnam in the genetic study. Thus, it is likely that the species originates in Southeast Asia, and possibly with a range that includes Peninsula Malaysia. A morphological comparison was more difficult, as many species of Nocticola are known only from male specimens, whereas all known specimens of Nocticola vagus are female.

Nocticola vagus female holotype. Habitus (A) frontal, (B) dorsal, (C) lateral, (D) ventral view and ootheca (E) lateral view. Wang et al. (2025).

Specimens of Nocticola vagus are described as 'small' (although Wang et al.do not provide measurements, and yellow or brown in colour. Their bodies are covered in short sensilla chaetica (sensory bristles). Each eye has eight ommatidia (the individual lenses of an Insect's compound eye), and the maxillary palps (mouthparts) each have five segments, making them almost as long as the head. 

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Searching for Fort Caroline.

On 22 June 1564 a group of predominantly Hugenot French settlers founded the colony of Fort Caroline on a waterway they identified as the 'River of May' in French Florida, under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière. The colony is thought to have been the first fortified European settlement in North America, but lasted for 15 months before being attacked and captured by a Spanish force led by Pedro Menendez on 20 September 1565. Following the attack the French survivors were taken to a beach called 'Matanzas' ('slaughter'), where the men were killed one at a time, before the women and children were loaded onto ships and taken to Havana, their subsequent fate being unknown. 

The fort was subsequently renamed Fort San Mateo, and occupied by a Spanish military force. On 25 April 1568 the fort was attacked by a force of French corsairs led by Dominique de Gourgues, who overwhelmed the Spanish force, before hanging all captured Spaniards and dumping the fort's cannons into the river. The site was briefly re-occupied by the Spanish, but abandoned in 1580 amid deteriorating relations with the local Native American population.

The site of Fort Caroline has subsequently been lost, but is considered to be an important location in American history, as its founding predated the foundation of the Lost Colony of Roanoke in modern Virginia by 21 years, the foundation of the Jamestown Fort by 45 years, and the arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts by 56 years. As such the location of Fort Caroline has been the subject of a large amount of speculation over the past century, with several locations proposed, the most popular of which is on the St Johns River, to the north of St Augustine, where the  Fort Caroline National Memorial is located.

In a paper published in the Journal of Historical Archaeology and Anthropological Sciences on 4 March 2022, Anita Spring of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida and Fletcher Crowe of Bethune-Cookman University re-examine the evidence for the location of Fort Caroline, and conclude that it should in fact be searched for on the St Mary's River, rather than the St Johns.

Drawing of Fort Caroline Attributed to Jacques Le Moyne and published by Théodor De Bry in 1591. Spring & Crowe (2022).

Spring and Crowe examined a collection of sixteenth century French and Spanish manuscripts relating to the site, including the accounts of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and Dominique de Gourgues, and identified 31 geographical criteria which could be used to identify the site of Fort Caroline in these documents, and used them to create a matrix against which the St Johns River and St Mary's River locations could be compared. 

Most of these criteria could be applied to both the St Mary's River and the lower part of the St Johns River, from its mouth to Blount Island where the river turns sharply to the south, although the St Johns River lacks a number of features described in the historic documents, notably two islands at the mouth of the river and parallel freshwater and saline channels. Furthermore the documents describe the river as deep and fast flowing, which is true of the St Mary's River but not of the St Johns.

As well as the written accounts made by eyewitnesses to the events, Spring and Crowe examined a series of maps of the area, made by French and English cartographers between the sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries.

The first of these maps was made by the French explorer Jean Ribault in 1562, whilst scouting for a site for the future colony at the behest of Nicolas Barré (known as 'Parreus'). This map shows the mouth of a river immediately west of the first island north of the River of May. Based upon Spring and Crowe's calculation that the River of May is the modern St Mary's River, this island would be Cumberland Island.

Parreus Map of French Florida, 1563. Shows a river west of the first island north of the River of May. If the River of May is the St. Marys River, this island is Cumberland Island, and the map is correct. Spring & Crowe (2022).

Modern map of the same area. Google Maps.

The second map examined was made by the English cartographer John White in 1587. White served as the governor of the second (failed) attempt at founding a colony at Roanoke in modern Virginia from 1587, and is known to have consulted with the French artist and cartographer Jacques Le Moyne, who took part in Jean Ribault's expedition to the area. This map shows a River des Daufins to the south of the River of May, which Spring and Crowe identify as the St Johns River.

Detail of Southern Portion of Map of North America by John White, 1587. Note that the 'River des Daufins' with its sharp bend to the south, is clearly the St. Johns River. Spring & Crowe (2022).

Finally Spring and Crowe looked at a map made by French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin in 1744. This map identifies the St Mary's River as the San Mateo, the name used for it by the Spanish when they ruled the area, and shows a point to the west of the mouth of this river labelled 'Ici… la Caroline' ('Here... the Caroline'), which presumably refers to the location of Fort Caroline. This map also identifies the St Johns River as the St Augustine River (again a name known to have been used by the Spanish for this river), with a note next to it indicating that it was formerly known as the formerly known as the River of Dolphins, strongly supporting the idea that the three names refer to the same waterway.

Detail of Southern Portion of Map of French Florida by Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1744. The French knew the River of Dolphins as the Seloy River. The map clearly shows Fort Caroline well north of the St. Johns River. Spring & Crowe (2022).

The Spanish assault of 1565 is known to have involved 500 men marching north from a place called 'Seloy' to attack Fort Caroline. Traditionally, 'Seloy' has been associated with the city of St Augustine, which is thought to be the oldest continuously occupied site in North America, and from which it would be possible to march north to the St Johns River without crossing any other body of water.

This would involve marching a distance of 35 miles, in four days, amid what witnesses described as driving rain, something possible, but highly implausible for a sixteenth century armed force of this size. 

French reports at the time record that the Spanish fleet disembarked the military force 8-10 leagues to the south of Fort Caroline, which, assuming a sixteenth century French league is 2.2-2.3 miles, would imply a distance of about 20 miles, which is a more reasonable achievement. This is also the approximate distance between the St Johns and St Mary's rivers, suggesting that Menendez could have landed his troops on the St Johns River before marching north to fight the French.

In 2014-15 and 2017 the Fort Caroline Archaeology Project carried out a series of excavations at four different locations on the St Mary's River, recovering over 100 artifacts. They also examined collections of objects gathered by local residents, and carried out surveys of the St Mary's River bottom, which revealed a number of items of interest, including stone markers, ballast stones, small clay objects, glass bottles of later periods, and a large stone block with a hole that possibly could be part of a French oven, all of which were deposited with the Florida Museum of Natural History. A fragment of wooden artifact collected close to a spring which might have provided the colony with fresh water yielded a carbon¹⁴ date of 1530-1600 years.

A Native American burial mound close to the St Mary's River, which was excavated by privately contracted archaeologists is known to have yielded a French halberd of a type that Dominique de Gourgues is known to have given to local warriors who took part in his attack on the Spanish-held Fort Caroline, as well as a number of other European artifacts, including an iron knife and several glass beads.

From this evidence Spring and Crowe deduce that the current available evidence strongly supports a position on the St Mary's River for Fort Caroline, and that, as late as the mid-eighteenth century, geographers and historians appear to have taken this location for granted, with the now-popular hypothesis of a location on the St Johns River apparently being a modern fallacy. 

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Hurricane Eta exposes nineteenth century shipwreck on the coast of Florida.

Hurricane Eta swept across central Florida on 12 November 2020, causing eleven fatalities, in addition to the 178 it had already claimed in Central America, in addition to causing widespread flooding and causing about a billion dollars' worth of damage to property. After the storm had passed it was discovered that high tides brought on by the hurricane's storm surge had scoured the beach at the Fort Matanzas National Monument in St John's County on the east coast of Florida, exposing the remains of a ship that had been burried by the sand. 

 

Exposed timbers on the foreshore at Fort Matanzas National Monument, believed to have come from an nineteenth century shipwreck. CNN.

The site is now being investigated archaeologists from the St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program and students from Flagler College, who have determined that the remains probably belong to the Caroline Eddy, an American merchant ship which sank in the area on 29 August 1880, after becoming caught in a storm.

 

Chuck Meide of the St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program examaning timbers believed to have come from the Caroline Eddy, a merchant ship which sank off the coast of Florida in August 1880. St Augustine.

Tropical storms, known as hurricanes in the Caribbean, are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere. These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

 

The formation of a tropical cyclone. Natural Disaster Management.

Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm surge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms. 

 

The formation and impact of a storm surge. eSchoolToday.

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Famlies forced to evacuate homes after sinkhole opens in Gainsville, Florida.

Six families have been forced to evacuate their homes after a sinkhole opened behind the properties in the West End Estates neighbourhood of Gainsville, Florida. The hole first appeared on Thursday 15 October 2020, and has now expanded to be about 15 m across and about 10 m deep, with whole trees falling into it and concerns the gas mains and other utilities may be affected. Families living close to the hole were asked to leave their homes by local officials on Thursday 22 October, but have expressed concern as there appears to be no clear plan as to whether they will be able to return to their homes in the future, or if they will be compensated if they cannot.

 

A sinkhole that appeared close to homes in Gainsville, Florida, in October 2020, causing residents to evacuate. 4 News Gainsville.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.

 

Typical sinkhole formation processes. Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Many parts of Florida are particularly prone to sinkholes, due to the porous limestone that underlies much of the state. This is eroded over time by acid in rainwater (most rainwater is slightly acidic, though pollution can make this worse), and can collapse suddenly, causing overlying sediments to collapse into the hole and a sinkhole to open up. This can be triggered by human activity, such as pumping water out (which causes the water to flow, facilitating acid dissolution of the limestone), but is essentially a natural process.

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Tourist attacked by Shark off Florida Keys.

A tourist has been attacked by a Shark while snorkeling in the Florida Keys on the morning of Sunday 20 September 2020, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. Charles Eddy, 30, was bitten on the shoulder by a 2.8-3.0 m Shark shortly after entering the water from a vessel close to Sombrero Key Light, offshore of Vaca Key. He received what have been described as 'severe' injuries, and was airlifted to the Ryder Trauma Center in Maimi. The Shark is believed to have been a Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas, a species noted for its aggresive behaviour, as several boaters had reported seeing a similar-sized member of this species in the area shortly before the attack.

 

A Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas, in the Bahamas. Albert Kok/Wikimedia Commons.

Despite their fearsome reputation, attacks by Sharks are relatively rare. Most attacks on Humans by Sharks are thought to be mistakes, made by species that feed principally on Marine Mammals (which we superficially resemble when we enter the water), gaining the majority of their nutrition from the thick adipose (fat) layers of these animals (which we lack). Due to this, when Sharks do attack Humans these attacks are often broken off without the victim being consumed. Such attacks frequently result in severe injuries, but are seldom immediately fatal, with victims likely to survive if they receive immediate medical attention.

Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, are a form of Requiem Shark, Carcharhinidae, reaching about four metres in length at their largest. They have a reputation for aggressive behaviour, and are one of the species most prone to attacking Humans, though this is not because they are more hostile towards us than other Shark species, but because they inhabit environments where they are more likely to encounter us, favouring shallow inshore waters, and sometimes entering freshwater systems, which most Sharks shun (Bull Sharks have been encountered in the Mississippi River as far inland as southern Illinois). These Sharks are also territorial, and may lash out if they feel their territory is being invaded.

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