A Daylight Fireball Heads to New York
According to NASA, these regions of New York and New Jersey may have been shaken by a daylight fireball around 11:17 a.m. ET.
Source: Johannes Hurtig/Unsplash
A daylight fireball is a meteor that is incredibly bright. Because of its brightness, it can be seen during the day, as it burns even brighter than the sun as it enters the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Discovering a Meteor
NASA’s Meteor Watch team updated the public on Tuesday afternoon about what many residents in New York and New Jersey may have seen and experienced.
Source: Tasos Mansour/Unsplash
A daylight fireball was first tracked by the team at 11:17 a.m. By tracking the path of this meteor, NASA now believes that this daylight fireball flew about 49 miles above Upper Bay. This meteor was, therefore, near Greenville Yard in Jersey City.
A Fast Meteor
Incredibly, NASA believes that this daylight fireball was flying at about 34,000 miles per hour when it passed right over the Statue of Liberty.
Source: Justinne Camacho/Pexels
Luckily, the meteor didn’t hit anything on the ground — at least, NASA doesn’t believe it did. Instead, it started to disintegrate when it was about 29 miles above Midtown, Manhattan.
An Educated Guess
NASA has admitted that much of this tracked path isn’t set in stone. Rather, they’re using a lot of what people saw, as well as their own educated guesses.
Source: stanislao d'ambrosio/Unsplash
Officials said that “this trajectory is very crude and uncertain,” before adding that this is all based on “a few eyewitness accounts and there is no camera or satellite data currently available to refine the solution.”
Loud Booms Heard
Eyewitnesses also said that they heard at least one loud boom during this time period. NASA has explained this may have been related to the disintegrating meteor.
Source: Aaron Burson/Unsplash
However, NASA also claimed that reporting came in that said “military activity in the vicinity” may have been responsible. NASA said, this “would explain the multiple shakings and sounds reported to the media.”
Booms and Shaking Seen Around New York and New Jersey
New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) has also come out to explain the reports from eyewitnesses and citizens that they received during this event.
Source: Julien Riedel/Unsplash
According to NYCEM, many residents in the area heard a loud noise. Shaking was also reported in these regions.
No Damages Found
Even though this very loud boom, as well as shaking of the ground and of buildings, was seen and felt by people during this daylight fireball event, NYCEM has assured the public that they have yet to receive any reports of damages to buildings.
Source: Lucas Franco/Unsplash
It appears there also haven’t been any injuries reported as a result of this meteor.
Where Did the Meteor Land?
So far, NASA has suggested that the meteor didn’t land or hit the ground, as it likely disintegrated before it fully could reach the ground.
Source: Marjolijn van Raaij/Unsplash
As a result, they haven’t found any meteorites or fragments that were produced by the meteor during this event.
Initial Reports
Thanks to the ground shaking in New York and New Jersey, many local residents assumed that they were experiencing some kind of earthquake.
Source: Daryan Shamkhali/Unsplash
It wasn’t until NASA released a statement suggesting that a daylight fireball was seen over these areas of the United States that people had an answer to what they experienced early Tuesday morning.
A Mysterious Boom?
While NASA suggested that military activity in the vicinity may have been responsible for the reported boom that many residents in the region heard, some haven’t been too satisfied with this claim.
Source: Jeremy Straub/Unsplash
Some questions do also remain about the shaking of this region, as NASA has also stated that the military activity, rather than the fireball, is likely responsible for ground shaking.
No Seismic Activity
As many people remained convinced that they had experienced an earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey had to come out to explain that there had been no seismic activity in the region.
Source: Fabien Bazanegue/Unsplash
“The USGS has no direct evidence of the source of the shaking. Past reports of shaking with no associated seismic signal have had atmospheric origins such as sonic booms or weather-related phenomena,” the statement said.