Did Asteroid Hit Earth This Week? Fireball Explodes Over New York, Causes Loud 'Boom'

Residents in Central New York reported hearing and seeing a large fireball streak across the sky on Monday. According to an astronomy organization, the fireball was caused by an asteroid or meteor that entered Earth’s atmosphere.

According to the non-profit organization American Meteor Society (AMS), several eyewitnesses from New York reported a fireball event on Sept. 2 at around 5:00 pm EDT. Many of them reported seeing the fireball careen across the dark sky before hearing a loud booming sound.

The AMS said the fireball passed over Lake Ontario. Many of those who were able to see it lived in areas between Rochester and Syracuse. An eyewitness, named Catherine M. from Liverpool, New York, saw the fireball passing over a tree line before hearing a very loud sound.

“I was standing in the driveway facing north when the burning object passed above the trees from east to west,” she told AMS. “It lasted a second or so and had a trail behind it. A few minutes later, I heard a very loud boom.”

Other eyewitnesses even said that the booming sound was so loud that it caused their houses to shake.

The AMS explained there was a delay between the appearance of the fireball and the sound it produced because sound travels much slower than light.

The operations manager for AMS, Mike Haney, explained to CNN that what the eyewitness saw was the flash caused by a rock from space as it breached Earth’s atmosphere.

According to NASA, fireballs occur when a small asteroid or meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere and gets heated up due to the atmospheric friction.

“In front of it, a bow shock develops where atmospheric gases are compressed and heated,” NASA explained. “Some of this energy is radiated to the object causing it to ablate, and in most cases, break apart.”

“Fragmentation increases the amount of atmosphere intercepted and so enhances ablation and atmospheric braking,” the agency added.

NASA noted that due to their small size, asteroids and meteoroids that cause fireballs usually do not reach the ground. They usually explode shortly after going through Earth’s atmosphere.