The ten-pound rock explodes with a force of 440 pounds TNT.
Dramatic entrance
Sunday night, a meteor collided over Vermont before exploding in such a powerful blast that people could hear it from miles away as it shook cars and buildings underneath.
The fireball, NASA Meteor Watch later announced on Facebook, was probably a piece of a fragmented asteroid that flew 42,000 miles per hour over Mount Mansfield State Forest before it exploded. The blast has become a bit of a public spectacle. CBS News, but it seems to have passed without incident, unlike one that landed in France last month.
Break apart
The rock itself probably weighed only about 10 kilograms and measured six centimeters wide, but the explosion it caused when it broke apart released as much energy as 440 pounds of TNT, according to NASA.
The explosion itself probably took place when the atmospheric pressure in front of the meteor and the reduced pressure of the vacuum built up behind it became too much to withstand the space rock, which resulted in a severe fragmentation.
Sonic shock wave
Several stations on the ground even suffered tremors caused by the explosion, as if causing an earthquake, which helped NASA determine and reconstruct the meteor’s structure because they could not personally inspect it.
“A beautiful firework, courtesy of Mother Nature,” NASA wrote.
READ MORE: Meteor stripes over Vermont exploded so ‘violently’, shaking buildings, says NASA [CBS News]
More about meteors: Scientists: Life on Earth Probably Began in Meteor Craters
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