A meteor streaked during that time sky over Vermont on Sunday (March 7), making a staggering light show and causing Earth-shaking blasts as it burned through the atmosphere.
The meteor’s explosive passage through the atmosphere released what might be compared to 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of TNT, proposing that the meteor was likely 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, as per NASA Meteor Watch.
The space rock collided with the atmosphere at around 42,000 mph (68,000 kph), as per NASA. It showed up over the northern part of the state as a bright fireball at 5:38 p.m. EST, just before sunset.
Local news station WCAX3 detailed brings from everywhere the state after the event, with Vermonters depicting a “loud boom and body-rattling vibration” as the meteor passed overhead.
“I was fortunate to hear and see it by the Missisquoi River at the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, VT, just before sunset,” wrote Chris Hrotic, a commenter on NASA’s initial post about the event. “No loud boom as reported by others, but a rushing sound that made me look up at just the right moment. It was extremely bright and absolutely spectacular!”
In view of onlooker accounts, NASA estimates that the fireball originally seemed 52 miles (84 km) over Mount Mansfield State Forest only east of Burlington, the state’s biggest city. It at that point progressed 33 miles (53 km) northeast toward the Canadian border, vanishing 33 miles (53 km) over the ground south of the town of Newport.
As indicated by NASA, the shock wave was a consequence of the meteor fracturing because of atmospheric pressure. As the bowling ball-size chunk of a bigger parent asteroid moved at almost 55 times the speed of sound through the atmosphere, pressure developed before it and a vacuum-formed behind it. Ultimately, the stress of that differential made the rock to explode.
