(CBS) – A noontime boom that was heard and felt from southern Ontario to Virginia was likely caused by a disintegrating meteor, according to an organization in western New York that keeps track of such phenomena.
Witnesses across the area reported hearing the boom or seeing a fireball in the sky shortly after noon on Wednesday, said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society in Geneseo.
By early Thursday, the organization had recorded more than 150 reports of the fireball seen in seven states. The group said the fireball was mainly seen in New York and Ontario but it also received reports from Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Lunsford told CBS affiliate WTVH that he estimated that the fireball could have been the size of a small car, moving at least 10 miles per second.
When it disintegrated 22 miles above the surface in western New York, it produced a bright light. A camera on the CN Tower in Toronto captured a huge flash of light across the skyline. READ MORE
