NASA reports that a meteorite flying at 34,000 miles per hour passed near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Tuesday, burning up over the city.
New Yorkers and even residents of nearby states reported feeling an earthquake-like rumble and hearing a loud boom Tuesday morning as the bright, descending fireball burned itself out of existence about 29 miles above midtown Manhattan.
Several government agencies sprang into action to identify the mysterious, thunderous explosion, including NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office and the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Seismic Information Center.
But NASA said there was evidence for an alternative explanation.
“There are reports of military personnel in the vicinity at the time of the fireball,” the space agency said, “which could explain the shaking and sounds reported to the media.”
NASA reports that a meteorite rocketing at 34,000 miles per hour passed near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Tuesday and burned up over the city. New Yorkers and even residents of neighboring states reported feeling earthquake-like rumblings and hearing a loud “boom.”
But NASA said there was evidence for an alternative explanation. “There are reports of military personnel in the vicinity at the time the fireball occurred,” the US space agency said, “which could explain the shaking and sounds reported to the media.”
However, despite NASA’s warning, Pentagon officials said NBC New York that neither the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) nor any other US military sensor network had tracked anything that could explain the witnesses’ reports.
NASA astronomer and director of the Meteoroid Environments Office Bill Cooke issued a statement regarding the limited data currently known about the event.
According to Cooke, the daylight fireball was first seen at 11:17 a.m. local time near Greenville Yard, a rail freight yard located at the Port of New York and New Jersey.
“The fireball was first sighted at an altitude of 49 miles over Upper Bay (east of Greenville Yard),” Cooke said.
“The meteor descended at a steep angle of only 18 degrees from vertical,” he continued, “moving slightly east of north at 34,000 miles per hour.”
The NASA official thanked skywatchers with the American Meteor Society whose data ‘allowed a very rough determination of the meteor’s trajectory.’
Trackers for the nonprofit scientific group, founded in 1911, noted as many as 20 possible meteor sightings between 11:16 and 11:20 a.m. The society’s unconfirmed bolide reports spread across the tri-state area, from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and beyond to Delaware and Maryland.
“My attention was drawn to a fireball streaking across the sky,” eyewitness Judah Bergman told local news. “I couldn’t believe it.”
NASA astronomer and director of the Meteoroid Environments Office Bill Cooke said the daytime fireball was first seen at 11:17 a.m. local time near Greenville Yard, a freight train yard located at the Port of New York and New Jersey, “moving slightly east of north at 34,000 miles per hour.”
“It caught my eye – a fireball going across the sky,” eyewitness Judah Bergman told local news network NBC. “I couldn’t believe it.” Above, an image from the 1998 film Armageddon, in which space rocks threaten Earth, including New York City.
Despite residents’ accounts of tremors and physical shaking along the fireball’s path (presumably in northeastern New Jersey and Staten Island, New York), the USGS said in an official statement that it recorded no evidence of an earthquake.
“Analysis of seismic data from the area has not revealed any evidence of an earthquake. The USGS has no direct evidence of the source of the shaking,” the federal agency’s National Earthquake Information Center said.
“Previous reports of tremors without an associated seismic signal have had atmospheric origins,” the USGS warned, “such as sonic booms or weather-related phenomena.”
One explanation for the remarkably loud and earth-shaking noise from the suspected or alleged meteor may have arisen from the unusually thick summer air.
As chief meteorologist of the local branch WABC TelevisionLee Goldberg noted that July’s record heat would help the sound reverberate through the air.
During hot days, air molecules move faster and collide more frequently in their hot or “excited” state, allowing sound waves propagating through these molecular collisions to travel faster and with greater power.
NASA officials cautioned that their own assessment of Tuesday’s fireball sightings was “uncertain” and based on only “a few eyewitness accounts.”
“There is currently no camera or satellite data available to refine the solution,” the space agency’s meteoroid office acknowledged.
However, Cooke’s team at this NASA office pledged to continue gathering information to confirm these witness reports in order to complete their investigation into the case.
Tuesday’s event did not produce any meteorite impacts or landings, at least according to NASA.