A Meteor over Vermont reported by NASA Meteor Watch ends in a bright fireball

A brightly lit meteor sped through the night sky in the US state of Vermont on Sunday, March 7. The meteor created a giant fireball and looked like a big light show over the Vermont skies. Read further ahead to know more details.

A Meteor Over Vermont Spotted on Sunday, March 7

As reported by livescience.com, the meteor produced a loud shaking boom as it raced through the Earth atmosphere, burning up in the process and making a giant fireball that ended in a meteor shower. The meteor released energy equivalent to blowing up 440 pounds or 200 kilograms of TNT. NASA's meteor watch reported that the meteor was approximately 10 pounds or 4.5 kilograms in mass and about 6 inches or 15 centimetres in diameter. 

As reported by NASA, the meteor smashed through the atmosphere at a speed of approximately 42,000 miles per hour (68,000 kilometres per hour). The meteor looked like a very bright large fireball and appeared over the northern part of Vermont at 5:38 p.m. EST. A Vermont based local news station received calls where callers said that they heard a very loud boom and body rattling vibrations as the meteor passed over their areas. 

NASA estimates based on eyewitness accounts that the meteor initially appeared 52 miles or 84 kilometres over Mount Mansfield State, east of Burlington. The meteor then travelled through the sky for 33 miles (53 km) northeast, heading towards the Canadian border. The meteor disappeared 33 miles (53 km) over the ground at the south of Newport. As per NASA the loud boom and vibration that the meteor caused as a result of the meteor getting fractured due to the atmospheric pressure. As the 4.5 kg sped through the atmosphere at a very high speed, pressure built up in front of the space rock and a vacuum behind it, resulting in the meteor getting torn to pieces and causing a meteor shower. 

What are Meteor Showers and How are they Caused? 

Meteor showers happen when Earth in its orbit passes through leftover debris from the comets that have broken up. While the earth's orbit around the sun if pretty much fixed, comets have an elliptical orbit and often end up very close to the earth's orbit or enter the atmosphere. The inside of a comet is made up of icy materials and loosely attached rocks. When comets come into the earth's atmosphere they break up into tiny pieces due to friction and heat and that's what causes the bright meteor show. The debris completely burns up in the atmosphere if it's small or lands on the surface of the Earth if the size of the meteor is large enough.