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A blazing fireball flew Sunday night across the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, startling hundreds of eyewitnesses who reported sightings to the American Meteor Society.
The meteor likely first became visible around 9:20 p.m. local time 47 miles above Forest Hill, Maryland, as it headed northwest across the sky at 36,000 miles per hour. according to NASA Meteor Facebook page. The meteor, which was bright enough for NASA to refer to as a fireball, eventually disintegrated 22 miles above Pennsylvania in Gnatstown, a town south of Harrisburg.
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Hundreds have reported seeing them
during her short trip, space rock It achieved a brightness as bright as a quarter of the moon, captivating people around the region who pulled out their phones to take pictures of this object as it traveled just over 55 miles through the atmosphere.
According to NASA, hundreds have reported sightings of the object to the American Meteorite Society, which encourages witnesses To publish meteor reports on its website.
“It was the most impressive fireball I have ever seen in my entire life,” said a 62-year-old man from Pennsylvania. books in his report.
A fireball that captivates people on social media
Many others expressed similar amazement on social media.
Videos from mobile phones and doorbell surveillance cameras shared online showed a fireball lighting up the night sky with a green glow and what appeared to be a tail.
Baltimore meteorologist Justin Burke A bunch of videos have been shared On X, formerly Twitter. In one of the videos, a woman can be heard shouting, “What is this?!”, to which a man replies, “I don’t know, but I get it!”
What are fireballs?
Fireballs are larger and brighter than regular meteors, which is why they can be easily spotted from Earth. According to NASA.
For example, one such object was spotted last week zipping across the Colorado night sky, surprising many people who reported seeing it.
Objects that cause fireballs are not usually large enough to survive their passage through Earth’s atmosphere, although fragments or meteorites are sometimes found on Earth. In this case, NASA said the data indicated that the object that produced the meteorite was a small fragment of an asteroid 6 inches or so in diameter, likely originating in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Eric Lagata covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected].
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