(University of Toronto)A fireball stretched over a large swath of the East Coast on Tuesday night and gave off a loud “sonic boom,” experts said. More than 280 reports came into the American Meteor Society from those who said they saw it. “What struck me is that people from Canada to Southern Maryland saw it,” Hankey said. “That means it was pretty bright.”[From May: See a fireball captured on police dash cam in New England]Tuesday night’s fireball, Hankey said, included reports of people hearing a “sonic boom,” which are typically heard within a 50-mile radius of a fireball sighting. But an asteroid — and especially one that has a sonic boom associated with it — could end up as meteorites, or small rocks on the ground.

Source: Washington Post October 05, 2016 17:04 UTC