Rare daytime fireball spotted from orbit as residents report powerful sonic boom

A satellite view of America is shown with state boundaries outlined in white. White circles indicate the location of a fireball occurrence that was spotted from orbit.

Residents in the midwestern U.S. reported hearing a powerful sonic boom that has since been attributed to a potential daytime meteor, whose dramatic demise may have been witnessed by a satellite from geostationary orbit over 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth.

"The latest GLM imagery (1301Z) does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor," wrote the official account for the Cleveland National Weather Service in an X post responding to a curious user. The explosion heard over northern Ohio may have been a sonic boom, produced as the interplanetary visitor passed through Earth's atmosphere at supersonic speeds.