MARSHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - A five-foot in diameter meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 42,000 miles-per-hour Saturday, producing a meteorite that fell into Cape Cod Bay and a sonic boom that was heard throughout New England, NASA confirmed on Monday.
NASA said the meteor entered the atmosphere near the New Hampshire border, but cloudy conditions blocked those on the ground in the state from seeing it. The fireball was captured on video in New York.
The flying object landed in about 100-feet of water, and could contain metal, NASA said. 7NEWS asked several harbormasters whether they had seen anyone heading out to hunt for fragments of the meteorite.
“I did hear it at my own private residence around 2 p.m. Saturday. Didn’t really know what it was, but I got a few phone calls on it,” said Marshfield Harbormaster Mike Dimeo. “I’m not sure how you’re going to track them or find them – I’m not sure what the value of it is, but we haven’t had anybody come in here with magnets looking for any meteors or things like that.”
Robert Lunsford, who works with the American Meteor Society, said they are fairly common. He said although pieces of the meteor could have reached the ocean, they’re tough to locate, even with coordinates from National Weather Service Radar data that detected falling debris.
“Most meteors, even if they’re the size of a beach ball or larger when they enter Earth’s atmosphere, fragment into tiny pieces,” Lunsford said.
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