Spectacular meteor lit up skies in 15 US states

NIRMAL YESODA

A very small meteor that burned up in the atmosphere of the United States panicked residents of 15 states, as the mid-air explosion was so bright. The meteor event happened on October 30, at 06.24 AM. Thousands of people witnessed the mid-air explosion and were left baffled by the bright light, it produced in the skies.

Jay Reynolds, a Research Astronomer at the Cleveland State University revealed that the object that burned up in the earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday was a meteor that had the size of something that could fit in a human hand.

According to Reynolds, the meteor that lit up the skies could have fallen somewhere in South Youngstown. Considering the size of the meteor, it might have broken up into very smaller pieces during its downfall, and as a result, it will be hard to retrieve the fragments of this cosmic object.

Meteor impacts on earth are quite common, and most of the time, it usually goes unnoticed. But there are several cases where the mid-air explosion of meteors caused devastating effects on the earth’s surface.

In 2013, a meteor that had a size of 60 feet burned up in the skies of Russia, and injured more than 1,000 people. Now, known as the Chelyabinsk meteor, this explosion caused several structural damages too in the city.