‘Sonic boom’ rocks New Jersey after rare daytime meteor sighting: NASA confirms

Residents across five states were treated to a rare celestial spectacle Tuesday afternoon as a massive meteor blazed through the upper atmosphere, triggering a flurry of reports and an eventual sonic boom. The event was witnessed by more than 200 people across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

According to NASA, meteors are frequent, they typically occur above the ocean or unpopulated areas. This particular meteor was moving at 30,000 miles per hour and traveled 117 miles through the upper atmosphere before disintegrating 27 miles above Galloway, just north of Atlantic City.

In this connection, Nicholas Samuelian, who was driving on Route 70 in Medford Lakes said: “I didn't know what to think at first. I never saw anything like that, so it was one of the craziest things I have ever seen.”

According to NASA, meteors travel through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds- surpassing the speed of sound-which eventually leads to sonic booms. By definition, a meteoroid is a small asteroid in space; it becomes a meteor when light is emitted as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and begins to burn.

It is pertinent to note that a fireball is a meteor brighter than the planet Venus, and a meteorite is a fragment that survives passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground.

Impact cratering is described as a high-energy geological event occurring in a very short timeframe, creating conditions that exceed the intensity of nuclear explosions. Scientists use morphological and geophysical surveys to find anomalous structures hidden underground. The prime motive of recognition of an impact site requires proof of shock metamorphic efforts or the presence of meteoritic components that only occur during hypervelocity impacts.