A photograph of the flaming meteor that exploded over Sierra Nevada with a powerful sonic boom has been released by NASA. The boom of the space rock as it disintegrated rattled houses in both California and Nevada and it released energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion.
The meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere around 8am on Sunday somewhere over California’s Central Valley.
The boom of the meteor as it disintegrated rattled houses in both California and Nevada and it released energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion
The red bullseye indicates the location where Sunday’s meteor exploded over California’s Central Valley
According to space.com, several witnesses initially thought they had experienced an earthquake.
Don Yeomans of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office, told MSNBC: ‘An event of this size might happen about once a year. But most of them occur over the ocean or an uninhabited area, so getting to see one is something special.’
The sound of the explosion prompted a flood of calls to law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Sierra Nevada in the two states.
When debris enters the atmosphere it creates explosions similar to the sonic boom of a fast-moving aeroplane, according to meteorologists.
There were no reports of earthquakes or other seismic activity at the time.
Strike: A meteor has caused this massive fireball in the Sierra Nevada
Asteroid speeding towards Earth Earth from Space (file photo)
Jenae Neu told RGJ.com: ‘I was outside my apartment and saw a huge bright thing in the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw a huge bright ball with some sort of tail.
‘It looked like it was about 100 yards away and it only lasted about two seconds before it went behind a hill that’s close to my place. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. It was crazy.’
A police officer reported seeing a ‘weird, multi-coloured comet, sparking and streaking toward the ground’.
Last weekend was a time of heightened meteor activity, as the Lyrid meteor shower was visible from Earth.
The shower comes around once a year, and tends to peak on April 22.
It is caused by the passage of Comet Thatcher, which leaves debris in its wake as it passes the Earth at a distance of more than 80million miles.
