A spectacular meteor event shook Northeast Ohio on Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. A seven-ton asteroid entered the atmosphere and broke apart over Medina County, NASA confirmed. People saw the fireball as far away as Canada and Virginia.
A small asteroid nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons moved southeast at 45,000 mph before fragmenting over Valley City. When it broke up, it unleashed a pressure wave responsible for the loud boom heard throughout Northeast Ohio. The chunk of space rock unleashed an amount of energy equivalent to 250 tons of TNT when it fragmented, NASA said. Some residents thought they'd heard a plane crash or explosion, but experts quickly identified it as a meteor using satellite imagery designed to detect lightning.
NASA said fragments from the meteor scattered around Medina County, Ohio, with some fragments making it to the ground. Local universities including Case Western and Kent State are asking people to report possible finds, saying each piece helps us better understand the vast universe we call home. The event has already sparked a hunt for meteorite pieces across the region, and experts say anyone who finds a potential specimen should report it to local universities. Despite the dramatic nature of the explosion, you're much more likely to get bit by a radioactive spider than you are to be hurt by the meteorite.
The fact that residents all over Northeast Ohio reported hearing the boom means that the meteor was very close and moving faster than the speed of sound, making it probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Tens of thousands of people heard and felt the explosion all over Northeast Ohio and into Pennsylvania and New York. If you're curious about other natural phenomena in the region, check out our coverage of recent tornado warnings that hit the East Coast.