An extremely rare "daytime fireball" meteor was recently spotted streaking across sunny blue skies over the eastern U.S. after a fridge-size space rock exploded and triggered a powerful sonic boom. The unusual event, which was also visible from space, may have rained tiny meteorite fragments across the local area, experts say.
The 6-foot-wide (1.8 meters) asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere on Tuesday (March 17), at approximately 8:57 a.m. EDT, and began to burn up in the skies over Lake Erie in northern Ohio at a speed of around 40,000 mph (64,400 km/h), according to a NASA report. The flaming space rock, which weighed around 7 tons (6.4 metric tons), then broke apart around 30 miles (48 kilometers) above the town of Valley City near Akron, creating a bright flash that lasted for up to seven seconds.
