Two videos have emerged that appear to capture the fiery 34,000 mile-per-hour “daytime fireball” that soared above New York’s Statue of Liberty on Tuesday.
A video, taken from a Nest home security camera in Wayne, New Jersey, shows a bright white streak of light streaking across the morning sky, more than 50 miles away from the burning object as it disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA revealed on Tuesday that the “fireball” had fallen “at a steep angle of just 18 degrees from the vertical” before “disintegrating 47 kilometers above midtown Manhattan.”
The two videos were sent in by amateur skywatchers to the American Meteor Society, which has now recorded dozens of possible witnesses of the meteor, some of whom were reportedly shaken by its earthquake-like rumble and loud, startling “boom.”
The second video, recorded in Northford, Connecticut, shows more high-resolution images of the fireball as it burned over forested hills like a midday shooting star.
Two videos have emerged that appear to capture the fiery meteorite that flew at 55,000 kilometres per hour over New York’s Statue of Liberty on Tuesday. One of the videos was taken from a Nest home security camera in Wayne, New Jersey (still image above).
NASA Meteoroid Environments Office chief Bill Cooke previously thanked the society for collecting Your public meteorite sighting data which allowed the US space agency to make “a very approximate determination of the meteorite’s trajectory.”
The American Meteor Society has issued a warning that the two new fireball videos, posted on His official YouTube channel‘may not be related to a fireball event.’
Both videos, along with A total of 43 witness reportsHowever, it coincided with the timing (11:15 a.m. Eastern Time) and proximity of Thursday’s “fireball” event.
Trackers at the nonprofit society, founded in 1911, have now mapped reports of the fireball across the tri-state area, from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, and beyond to Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
“It caught my attention: a fireball streaking across the sky,” eyewitness Judah Bergman told NBC News New York. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The second video, recorded from Northford, Connecticut (still above), shows a higher-resolution image of the fireball as it burned over forested hills like a midday shooting star.
A close-up of the fireball from the second video, American Meteor Society report 3491ah-2024
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.
“I have personally spoken with NYC Emergency Management and there is nothing on their radar,” New York City Council Member Justin Brannan posted on Facebook.
“Some say it may have been a meteorite,” Brannan continued. “I’ll keep you posted.”
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.”
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 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.
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.
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.”
NASA officials cautioned that their own assessment of Tuesday’s fireball sightings was “uncertain” and based on only “a few eyewitness accounts.”