New York has been the setting for countless “end of the world” storylines in films and television.
But on Tuesday, a meteor actually streaked past the city’s iconic Statue of Liberty before disintegrating high above Manhattan, NASA’s Meteor Watch reported in a Facebook post.
Residents sent messages en masse about a fireball in the sky on the internet. Some described the feeling of an earthquake, others told of the sound of thunder.
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“Traveling at 34,000 miles per hour, the meteor descended at an angle of just 18 degrees from the vertical axis, passing the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating 29 miles (47 kilometers) above downtown Manhattan,” the U.S. space agency NASA wrote on social media on Tuesday.
Footage from a doorbell camera uploaded to the American Meteor Society (AMS) showed a bright flash in the sky over Wayne, a city in the state of New Jersey that borders New York.
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According to the AMS website, a total of 43 witness statements related to the meteor were received.
NASA stressed in its update that “this trajectory is very rudimentary and uncertain; it is based on a few eyewitness accounts, and no camera or satellite data are currently available to refine the solution.”
No meteorites were produced, it was added.
According to NASA, “reports of military activity in the area around the time of the fireball” could explain the reports of vibrations and bangs.
© Agence France-Presse