Watch: A Meteor Falls To Earth In Vermont
A meteor dropped into the twilight sky over northern Vermont and Canada on Sunday night (3/7) traveling at an estimated 42,000 miles per hour.
NASA Meteor Watch said on Facebook that more than 100 people saw the meteor at around 5:38 p.m. local time Sunday. They said, “As the object (which was likely a fragment of an asteroid) penetrated deeper into the atmosphere, pressure built up on its front while a partial vacuum formed behind it. About 30 miles up, the pressure difference between front and back exceeded its structural strength. The space rock fragmented violently, producing a pressure wave that rattled buildings and generated the sound heard by those near the trajectory.”
CNN reported that the meteor was seen traveling northeast across 33 miles — from Mount Mansfield State Forest to Beach Hill in Orleans County south of Newport. Based on infrasound measurements, which are low-frequency sounds that can travel great distances, the agency was able to measure the fireball as weighing about 10 pounds with a diameter of around six inches.
One witness Tweeted along with a small video of the meteor falling, “For anyone who was wondering about the big boom / meteor earlier today in #btv #vermont , I dug through some webcam footage and found this on the WCAX / BTV Airport webcam- watch the upper left.”
For anyone who was wondering about the big boom / meteor earlier today in #btv #vermont , I dug through some webcam footage and found this on the WCAX / BTV Airport webcam- watch the upper left. pic.twitter.com/oyVLSoVahP
— Jeremy LaClair (@JeremyLaclair) March 8, 2021
