Meteor explodes over Vermont with the force of 440 pounds of TNT

[Judi Lynn]

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 4 hours ago

It was the size of a bowling ball but exploded like 440 pounds of TNT


A meteor streaked through the night sky over Vermont on Sunday (March 7), creating a spectacular light show and causing Earth-shaking booms as it burned through the atmosphere.

The meteor's explosive passage through the atmosphere released the equivalent of 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of TNT, suggesting that the meteor was likely 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, according to NASA Meteor Watch.

The space rock smacked into the atmosphere at about 42,000 mph (68,000 kph), according to NASA. It appeared over the northern part of the state as a bright fireball at 5:38 p.m. EST, just before sunset.

"I was fortunate to hear and see it by the Missisquoi River at the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, VT, just before sunset," wrote Chris Hrotic, a commenter on NASA's initial post about the event. "No loud boom as reported by others, but a rushing sound that made me look up at just the right moment. It was extremely bright and absolutely spectacular!"

More:
https://www.livescience.com/vermont-meteor-explodes.html?utm_source=notification

[2naSalit]

1. Interesting...

On Thursday morning, 3/4, hours before daylight, probably around 4:30am, I looked out t=at the sky and noticed a very bright streak in the sky. It looked much like a meteor trail but was visible for several minutes, then faded away. I wondered what had fallen to earth at that point and wondered if it was that large meteor I had heard about but that was supposed to pass by on Saturday so I don't know what it was but it got my attention.

[William Seger]

2. "a rushing sound"

In the late 70s, as I was driving home one summer night with the car window open, I saw a large fireball meteor and at the same time, I heard a hissing sound that sounded like a pop bottle being opened slowly. Thinking about it later, it seemed impossible that the sound had come from the meteor: Any sound that far away should have taken considerable time to reach me. I decided that I must have heard an unrelated sound and my brain had simply assumed that it had come from the meteor.

In the late 90s, I came across an article about a guy who was asking for reports from people who had heard similar sounds from meteors -- and there were a lot. At the time, most scientists made the same assumption that I had: that it was impossible, so people were just being confused by a simultaneous sound or just imagining things. After years of study and experiments, however, the theory of "electrophonic meteors" is now widely accepted. It seems that under certain conditions, a meteor can create low-frequency radio ways which travel at the speed of light and which can cause certain objects to vibrate, converting the radio waves to sound -- a natural transducer. I have dry, frizzy hair, and I was wearing metal frame glasses, two factors identified in many of the reports. Sometimes, dry leaves can do it.

Anyone here ever heard a meteor?