A 7-Ton Asteroid Explodes Over Cleveland Suburbs

A 7-ton asteroid, roughly 6 feet in diameter, disintegrated in the skies above suburban Cleveland, Ohio, early Tuesday morning, according to NASA.

At about 9 a.m., residents in northeastern Ohio witnessed a bright fireball and heard a loud explosion, which was attributed to the asteroid breaking apart over the greater Cleveland area. NASA confirmed this phenomenon.

“As it fragmented, the asteroid released energy equivalent to 250 tons of TNT, creating a pressure wave that resonated to the ground, causing the thud many people reported hearing,” the agency noted.

Besides Ohio, numerous witnesses from Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and even Ontario, Canada, reported seeing the fireball.

The asteroid was moving southeast at an astonishing 40,000 miles per hour, traveling over 54 miles through the upper atmosphere before breaking apart about 30 miles over Valley City in Medina County, which is a suburb of Cleveland.

NASA also mentioned it may have caused vibrations in homes to the north of Medina. There’s a possibility that debris from the asteroid created a meteorite scattered across Medina County.

An asteroid that burns up in Earth’s atmosphere is referred to as a meteor. The fireball was first detected 80 miles above Lake Erie, off Lorain’s coast.

Residents who experienced the explosion took to social media to inquire about the source of the loud noise. Some even contacted the police, prompting at least one city to send a text urging people to refrain from calling 911 out of concern for the asteroid.

Shortly after, the National Weather Service in Cleveland shared that the boom was due to a meteorite, which NASA later corroborated.

Footage of the fireball was shared widely on social media, with many residents posting videos capturing the sound of the explosion detected by their home surveillance cameras.