Bright fireball over Pennsylvania, good chance of meteorites
Featured image: Bright fireball over Maryland and Pennsylvania on September 17, 2017. Credit: Charles Markarian
A bright green fireball streaked across the sky over Maryland and Pennsylvania at 04:59 UTC (00:59 EDT) on September 17, 2017. The fireball lasted between 2 and 3 seconds and was followed by a sonic boom.
The event was seen primarily from Maryland and Pennsylvania but was also seen from New York, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, and Massachusetts.
The American Meteor Society received 180 reports by 12:00 UTC on September 19. 40 eyewitnesses said they observed fragmentation, 11 said they heard delayed sound while 13 said they heard a concurrent sound associated with the event.
Heatmap courtesy American Meteor Society
Based on the sonic boom reports, the magnitude of the meteor and the obvious visible fragmentation in the videos there is a good chance meteorites from this fall could have landed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, AMS said.
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
Commenting rules and guidelines
We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules.