A meteor streaked across the sky above the Statue of Liberty before breaking apart roughly 30 miles above Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning, according to NASA.
At around 11:15 a.m., the celestial object entered the atmosphere over New York City, coinciding with reports from locals who observed a bright fireball and felt slight tremors beneath them.
Witnesses from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut described the fireball as it traversed the sky, with one person noting it glowed in shades of green, yellow, and white.
The dazzling event, which lasted around 30 seconds, saw the meteor fragment into three parts, as reported to the American Meteor Society by an eyewitness.
NASA’s Meteor Watch calculated that the “daylight fireball” was initially detected approximately 40 miles above Upper Bay in New York Harbor, near the Statue of Liberty.
Traveling at a velocity of 34,000 miles per hour, “the meteor descended at a steep angle of just 18 degrees from vertical, passing over the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating 29 miles above midtown Manhattan,” NASA detailed in a Facebook post.
The incident did not result in any meteorites, or space debris reaching the Earth’s surface.
Fortunately, no damage or injuries were reported due to the meteor, confirmed by the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
Experts believe the shaking felt was unrelated to the meteor or any other natural phenomena.
The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center received reports of shaking in northeastern New Jersey and Staten Island, but ruled out the possibility of an earthquake.
“An examination of the seismic data in the area showed no evidence of an earthquake,” the agency stated.
“The USGS has no direct evidence of the source of the shaking. Past reports of shaking with no associated seismic signal have had atmospheric origins such as sonic booms or weather-related phenomena.”
NASA theorizes the shaking might be linked to reported military activities in the vicinity.
The meteor event coincided with an extremely hot day in New York City.
Temperatures hit 100 degrees, with the heat index making it feel like 110 degrees.
{Matzav.com}