A small meteor burned up in the earth's atmosphere on Wednesday morning, and the bright light, it produced on the skies, baffled people in 15 states in the US. The incident happened at 06.24 AM, and several people watched the sky sighting where a fireball passed across the earth's atmosphere at skyrocketing speed.
More Details About the Meteor
Jay Reynolds, a Research Astronomer at Cleveland State University told KDKA TV that the object that lit up the skies was a meteor, and the trajectory put together by the American Meteor Society estimates that the path was just west of the Pennsylvania and Ohio border.
Even though the meteor was small, it became notable due to the bright light produced during the time of its atmospheric entry. Reynolds revealed that this meteor had the size of something that could fit in a human hand, and it might be most probably made up of magnesium, or other metallic materials.
Reynolds suggested that the meteor could have fallen somewhere over the area of South Youngstown. However, the meteor might have broken up into several pieces during the fall, and as a result, discovering these space objects could turn out to be a difficult task.
Space Threat Continues
Several space experts believe that earth is facing constant threats from rogue space rocks. The new meteor that burned up was very small, and such objects will not pose threats to humanity. However, the Chelyabinsk meteor that burned up in the skies of Russia in 2013 was a bit larger, as it had a size of 60 feet. The mid-air explosion in Chelyabinsk was so powerful that it injured more than 1,000 people.
Apart from meteors, asteroids are other space objects that pose threat to the existence of humanity. NASA, the United States space agency has been tracking near-earth objects that could be potentially hazardous. As per the latest record from NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), no asteroid will pose threat to planet earth in the near future.
However, asteroids like Bennu and Apophis could pose threat to the planet one day or the other. Space experts like Iain McDonald believe that devastating events like the one that resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs around 66 million years back are not confined to the past, and it may happen in the future too.
