Did a Meteor Explode Over Pittsburgh?

It was not the primary time in latest reminiscence that folks have questioned about seemingly mysterious actions overhead.

In December 2018, the sky over New York Metropolis erupted in a blue light. Folks theorized a few U.F.O. flyby or an alien invasion, although the trigger turned out to be a transformer explosion at a Con Edison substation. In 2015, a 500-pound meteor streaked via the sky above western Pennsylvania triggering a sonic increase, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Extra lately, in October, a increase shook homes in New Hampshire, giving rise to theories that an earthquake or an plane was in charge. (Satellite tv for pc imagery, nevertheless, instructed a meteor exploded within the ambiance above the state.)

In Pittsburgh on Saturday, Ms. Lake stated that no person reported seeing something “under the cloud deck,” which was about 2,000 toes above the bottom. Ms. Lake thinks the meteor might have been “a few thousand toes” above the bottom, however not under the cloud cowl.

For now, a meteor explosion is the most effective idea about what occurred over Pittsburgh on Saturday, Ms. Lake stated, although it is going to stay simply that — a idea — “until somebody finds some rocks of their yard,” she stated.

Ms. Turnshek, the Carnegie Mellon lecturer, stated that what she and others in Pittsburgh skilled on New Yr’s Day was “uncommon and notable,” a “once-in-a-lifetime occasion.”

Regardless of the rarity, there isn’t any scarcity of flicks depicting the hazards of a meteor, asteroid or comet crashing to Earth (together with “The Day the Sky Exploded,” “Meteor,” “Armageddon” and the latest “Don’t Look Up”).

Astronomers are looking out for such issues, Ms. Turnshek stated. “If we had discovered a big physique incoming,” the most effective resolution would most likely be to “ship a rocket to sit down subsequent to it, and the gravitational pull of the rocket will pull it off track.”