A fireball that prompted loud sonic booms and even lit up the daytime sky on Saturday was the first radar-noticed meteorite tumble noticed in Maine, NASA confirmed.
“Booming” noises ended up read in the vicinity of Calais, Maine, soon following the fireball was noticed moving by the sky. This evident meteorite tumble happened at 11:56 a.m. local time, NASA stated.
NASA’s radar was equipped to notice the function for practically 5 minutes and calculated fallen meteorite masses from 1.59-322 grams, or a lot less than a pound, “although larger sized masses could have fallen.”
Due to the fact of this, the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum in Bethel is supplying a $25,000 reward for the initially meteorite they get weighing 1 kilogram or additional, the Bangor Day by day Information described.
So much, no meteors or items have been reported observed.
With winds of up to 100 mph at the time of the event, smaller meteorites could have been carried into Canada, NASA stated.
The outlet explained the most likely spot for recovering any meteorites is a mile-large industry extending from just north of Waite, Maine, to the border town of Canoose in New Brunswick, Canada.
Shawn Laatsch, the director of the Versant Electric power Astronomy Heart at the University of Maine in Orono, told the Machias Valley News Observer that he speculates the fireball was probably a bigger type of meteor called a bolide because those are generally noticeable throughout the daytime.
“If it is visible in the daytime, it’s usually a huge meteor that hits that atmosphere and lights up,” Laatsch told the Observer. “The various hues you see count on what it was created up of.”
Some explained the meteorite’s drop as a “red flare” or like a “firework,” in accordance to the Machias paper.
This meteorite slide is recorded in American Meteor Modern society eyewitness studies as selection 2002 for the yr 2023, in accordance to NASA.
Camille High-quality is a trending visible producer on United states of america Today’s NOW workforce.