A seven-ton asteroid nearly six feet in diameter entered Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday morning before exploding and breaking into pieces over a suburb in Cleveland, Ohio, according to NASA.
The fireball that Northeast Ohio residents saw, as well as the explosion they heard at 9:00 a.m. this morning, was an asteroid that broke apart over the greater Cleveland area, NASA said.
“The asteroid unleashed an energy of 250 tons of TNT when it fragmented, resulting in a pressure wave which propagated to the ground, causing the booms and explosive noises heard by many of the public,” the agency explained.
NASA added that, in addition to Ohio, “many eyewitnesses” reported seeing the fireball in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada.
Moving southeast at 40,000 miles per hour, the asteroid traveled over 34 miles through the upper atmosphere before breaking into pieces 30 miles above Valley City in Medina County, Ohio — a suburb southwest of Cleveland.
Fragments from the asteroid — which “may have also shook houses north of Medina” — ended up producing meteorites that may now be scattered about Medina County, NASA said.
After an asteroid — which orbits the sun — breaks off and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes a meteor. The fireball was first spotted 50 miles above Lake Erie, off the beaches of Lorain in northern Ohio.
Residents across Northeast Ohio who heard and felt the explosion took to social media to ask if anyone knew what created the loud “boom.”
Others, meanwhile, called the police on the asteroid, resulting in at least one city texting residents, asking them to stop calling 9-1-1.
Minutes later — before NASA confirmed the seven-ton asteroid — the National Weather Service in Cleveland announced that “the boom was a result of a meteor.”
Those who caught the fireball on camera shared the footage to social media.
Watch Below — Warning: Explicit Language:
Many others in Northeast Ohio posted videos that played the loud “boom” sound captured on their home surveillance cameras.
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Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
