A bright meteor briefly swept across the sky over parts of the U.S. Midwest and Canada on Tuesday, weather and geology agencies said, and then caused a powerful explosion that rattled homes and onlookers.
The meteor was seen across the region in places such as Ohio, Michigan and Ontario at about 8 p.m. local time and registered a 2.0 magnitude tremor about 7 km east of Saint Clair Shores in Eastern Michigan, the United States Geological Survey said on its website. “The NWS can confirm the flash and boom was NOT thunder or lightning, but instead a likely meteor,” the NWS in Detroit said on Twitter.
The meteor sighting lit up social media with people posting videos and reaction.
“I can't believe there was a Meteor! It shook our house and made a large bang! We thought someone hit our house,” Twitter user Jennifer Wilson said in a post.
Others had more ominous thoughts.
“I thought for sure I was either seeing the alien invasion or the apocalypse. It's awesome in retrospect, freaky ... in real time,” said a Twitter user who goes by the name Crash.