An asteroid just exploded above Ohio with the force of 250 tons of TNT
Eyewitness accounts and videos taken from across the Midwest reveal the streak of a large fireball across the daytime sky
This image, taken with a meteorite tracking device developed by amateur astronomer George Varros, shows a meteorite as it enters Earth’s atmosphere during the Leonid meteor shower on November 19, 2002.
Photo by George Varros and Dr. Peter Jenniskens/NASA/Getty Images
A brilliant fireball soared across the skies over the Midwest on Tuesday, making its way to Earth near Lake Erie and Ohio around 9:00 AM EDT. Several individuals reported hearing a thunderous boom strong enough to rattle their homes.
NASA has identified the object as a seven-ton asteroid measuring nearly six feet in diameter. As it descended, the asteroid traveled at approximately 40,000 miles per hour in a southeasterly direction before disintegrating above Valley City in Ohio. NASA reported that this explosion equaled the force of 250 tons of TNT and “may have also shook houses north of Medina.”
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The explosion created a pressure wave that local residents likely heard. According to NASA, some fragments of the meteor landed as meteorites near Medina, although any resulting damage is currently unknown.
“What occurred this morning was a daylight fireball at least several feet across,” says Robert Lunsford, who helps coordinate fireball reports at the American Meteor Society. “This is large enough to survive down to the lower atmosphere, where the air molecules are dense enough to carry sound. Therefore, people under the path of this fireball heard a delayed sonic boom produced by this fireball.”
Initially, the object did not display the characteristics of space debris, noted astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell prior to NASA’s confirmation. “Space debris usually has slowed to below supersonic by the time it gets low enough that it would make an audible boom,” McDowell explains.
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) lightning satellite image of the Ohio fireball.
Alan Gerard/Balanced Weather/NOAA
The origin of the asteroid remains uncertain. While Earth regularly encounters space dust and rocks, only a few are large enough to reach the ground and be seen in daylight before burning up in the atmosphere. If a portion of a meteor survives the descent and lands, it becomes a meteorite.
“We receive several reports of daylight fireballs per month from all over the world,” Lunsford says. “If they are large and bright enough, they can be seen against the blue daytime sky. So it’s rare for an individual to see one of these but fairly common over the entire planet. Still, they make up far less than one percent of the total number of fireballs reported to us.”
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
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