On a recent Tuesday morning, a mysterious, massive "boom" echoed across Ohio and neighboring states, leaving residents looking to the sky for answers.
The National Weather Service in Cleveland quickly stepped in to solve the curious mystery. According to the agency, the loud blast "appears to have been from a meteor". They further confirmed that their imagery "does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor".
The phenomenon was not just a sound. The NWS in Pittsburgh noted that residents in western Pennsylvania also reported a loud "boom" and a visible fireball in the sky. In fact, an NWS employee successfully filmed the apparent meteor as it shot rapidly across the Pittsburgh area.
(Courtesy of US National Weather Service Pittsburgh PA)
A High-Speed Celestial Visitor
So, what exactly was this mysterious object? Bill Cooke, the lead of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office, shared some truly shocking details. He explained to ABC News that the asteroid was roughly 6 feet across and weighed about 8 tons. Even more unbelievably, it was traveling at a blistering 40,000 miles per hour.
Because of its massive size and speed, the blazing space rock was seen across 10 states, with sightings stretching as far south as Virginia and Kentucky.
The 250-Ton Blast
The climax of this cosmic event happened over Medina County, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. Cooke explained that the meteor blew apart with the unbelievable energy of about 250 tons of TNT. This massive explosion created the loud blast, and pieces of the meteor subsequently rained down in the area.
While Cooke noted that sizable fireballs occur about once a month over the U.S., he pointed out a curious detail: they usually are not as visible or loud as this one.
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