According to eyewitnesses in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada, a fireball buzzed across the air on Sunday.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) said on Facebook that it had received more than 100 reports of a fireball seen on March 7 at about 5:38 p.m. ET in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and the Canadian province of Quebec. is. .
NASA Meteor Watch said it also received reports of the fireball, with analysis showing that the meteor occurred over northern Vermont, and for the first time at an altitude of 52 miles above Mount Mansfield State Forest in the north. of the state appeared.
The meteor moved about 47,000 miles per hour northeast and traveled 33 miles through the earth’s upper atmosphere before burning 33 miles above Beach Hill in Orleans County, Vermont.
NASA said Meteor Watch hopes to refine the orbit of the meteor because it has received more reports from the public.
Fireball is another term for a very bright meteor. Usually they are brighter than size -4, which is about the same for the planet Venus, as seen in the morning or evening sky, according to the AMS.
Meteors, popularly known as shooting stars, are the streaks of light we see in the sky when space rocks – asteroids or meteoroids – enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Some eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud bang, except that they saw the meteor, which was only visible for a few seconds.
One Facebook user, Werner Bartlau, said in response to the NASA Meteor Watch message: ‘I heard the rumble in North Cambridge [Massachusetts], thought it might be the F35s going overboard again – which did half a dozen or more this morning. Did not think anything of it, except that it did not last long. ‘
Another Facebook user, CJ Hudson, had a similar experience. He said: ‘We heard a sonic surge, followed by a waning rumble from north to north-east from here in the north-east corner of Bristol. [Connecticut]. I thought it sounded a little abnormal. ‘
Another eyewitness, Shannon Lemley-Willis, in Johnson, Vermont, said her children were playing outside when the fireball passed overhead, with her children describing the noise as ‘large trucks colliding’.
Meanwhile, eyewitness Loretta King, who was then in St. Louis, Albans, Vermont was, said she was in her car and saw the bright yellow gleam of what she considered a ‘missile in the air’, describing the face as ‘amazing’. “
Some cameras even managed to record footage of the fireball. Twitter user Jeremy LaClair, for example, saw the meteor in footage captured by a webcam at Burlington International Airport.
For anyone wondering about the big tree / meteor earlier today in #btv #vermont , I went through some webcam recordings and found that it is on the WCAX / BTV airport webcam. pic.twitter.com/oyVLSoVahP
Jeremy LaClair @JeremyLaclair March 8, 2021
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