A disintegrating meteorite that descended engulfed in fire would have caused a powerful blast in parts of upstate New York on Wednesday night, observer Robert Lunsford, a member of the American Meteorite Society, told the Associated Press.
Lunsford said that a meteor exploded over Syracuse, creating a huge explosion and an impressive light show, the AP reported. Another sky watcher reported seeing the fireball over the Niagara region.
Observers recorded the activity at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. By then, the American Meteorite Society would have received as many as 90 reports of the fireball in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the AP reported.
The heavenly commotion left central New York police agencies and fire departments saturated with 911 calls about an explosion and windows vibrating from the blast. However, clouds covered the fireball from view over much of the area.
Lunsford told the AP that since most of the reports of the boom occurred around Syracuse, the meteor likely exploded there.
On the organization’s website, an observer from western New York reported that the fireball was bright white with shades of yellow. An observer in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported a fireball with red and orange sparks shrouded in smoke. A report from Welland, Ontario, described a tail of bright green lights.
“Sunny day, so it looked like a golden metallic flash against the blue sky,” said an observer from Winchester, Virginia.
Margaret Campbell-Brown, a member of the Meteor Physics Group at Western University in London, told the AP that fireballs, which are bright meteors, produce sound waves. A large one can produce a thunder-like sonic boom with possible additional explosions from fragmentation.
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