A meteor reportedly sailed past the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating roughly 30 miles over Midtown Manhattan early Tuesday morning, according to NASA.
Around 11:15 a.m., the space rock crossed over the Big Apple and entered the atmosphere. At that same moment, many in New York City reported feeling a little tremble beneath their feet and seeing a streak of fire appear in the sky.
As many as twenty individuals from Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York claimed to have seen the fireball fly across the sky. The shooting star glowed in green, yellow, and white for almost thirty seconds before breaking up into three parts, according to a witness who wrote to the American Meteor Society.
According to NASA’s Meteor Watch, the “daylight fireball” was initially observed around 40 miles over the Upper Bay of New York Harbor. In a Facebook post, the space agency stated that the meteor, which was traveling at an estimated speed of 34,000 kilometers per hour, “descended at a steep angle of just 18 degrees from vertical, passing over the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating 29 miles above midtown Manhattan.”
The National Earthquake Information Center of the US Geological Survey acknowledged receiving reports of ground shaking in the Staten Island, New York, and northeastern New Jersey region, but ruled out the idea that an earthquake had occurred. “An examination of the seismic data in the area showed no evidence of an earthquake,” the agency stated in a statement.
The event did not create any meteorites, or space debris that falls on Earth’s surface. The city’s Office of Emergency Management stated that there had been no complaints of damage or injuries associated with the incident.
