...the who's who,
and the what's what 
of the space industry

Space Careers

news Space News

Search News Archive

Title

Article text

Keyword

  • Home
  • News
  • A meteor streaked across the NYC skyline before disintegrating over New Jersey

A meteor streaked across the NYC skyline before disintegrating over New Jersey

Written by  Wednesday, 17 July 2024 16:00
Write a comment
meteor
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A meteor streaked across the New York City skyline before disintegrating over nearby New Jersey, according to NASA.

William Cooke, the head of the space agency's Meteoroid Environments Office, said the fireball was first sighted at an altitude of 51 miles (82 kilometers) above Manhattan at around 11:17 a.m. Tuesday.

The meteor passed over the southern part of Newark, New Jersey, before disintegrating 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the town of Mountainside, he said. No meteorites or other fragments of space debris reached the planet's surface.

The moved at a speed of about 41,000 mph (66,000 kph) and descended at a relatively steep angle of 44 degrees from vertical, Cooke said.

Its exact trajectory is uncertain, since reports are based only on eyewitness accounts and no camera or is currently available, he said.

As of Wednesday morning, there had been approximately 40 eyewitness reports filed on the American Meteor Society website, which the agency used to generate its estimates, Cooke said.

The fireball was not part of the Perseid meteor shower, and reports of loud booms and shaking could be explained by military aircraft in the vicinity around the time of its appearance, he said.

Cooke said the New York City area gets treated to a daylight fireball every year or two.

NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office said in a Facebook post that like the one that produced Tuesday's are only about a foot (a third of a meter) in diameter and can't remain intact all the way to the ground.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Citation: A meteor streaked across the NYC skyline before disintegrating over New Jersey (2024, July 17) retrieved 17 July 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-meteor-streaked-nyc-skyline-disintegrating.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Read more from original source...

You must login to post a comment.
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.

Be the first to comment.

Interested in Space?

Hit the buttons below to follow us...