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A flash of light from a meteor is seen over I-75 near Bloomfield Hills.
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Physics, velocity help explain meteor that lit up night sky

Mike Austin, YouTube

Physics, velocity help explain meteor that lit up night sky

Thousands of people across Ohio, Michigan, and surrounding states asked the same question Tuesday night: What the heck was that?

The answer: A larger-than-usual meteor plummeting from the sky just after 8 p.m. The American Meteor Society received 355 reports of a fireball in southeast Michigan, which was spotted as far away as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ontario.

The meteor ripped through the atmosphere at 28,000 mph, creating a sonic boom that registered a 2.0 on the Richter scale. Its remnant meteorites potentially landed between Detroit and Lansing.

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The brilliant flash of light was captured on cameras attached to homes and cars. Footage and pictures were then posted on social media.

Chelsea Means captured the moment on her security cameras. Although she didn't see the light, she said she heard a "loud thunder, rumble noise."

"It shook my house," she said. "At first, it sounded like someone hitting my house."

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Alex Mak, associate director at the University of Toledo's Ritter Planetarium and Brooks Observatory, said a few people called the office to inquire about what they witnessed.

"Basically it's a collision," Mr. Mak said. "You have the Earth revolving around the sun, and you have this debris also in motion. The two paths collide, and just like a car accident, you have two objects trying to occupy the same space and the meteor will fall to the earth."

The AMS receives reports of hundreds of fireballs every year, but Tuesday's event was a bigger deal than most. Meteorites ranging in size from a grain of salt to a balled fist rain down on Earth every day. The object caught on video Tuesday was estimated to be two meters in diameter — or about the size of a large refrigerator — before it burned up. 

Kelly Beatty, senior editor at Sky and Telescope magazine, said meteors and meteorites are a bit like seashells. Sizes vary depending on several factors.

"This goes above the level of what we would call just a bright fireball for a couple reasons," Mr. Beatty said. "One is that [hundreds] of people reported there was an explosion and a big flash in the sky, and there was a boom. So rather than just screaming into the atmosphere and gradually melting away to nothing, the pressure and friction this object experienced became stronger than the object itself, and caused it to fragment. That's much rarer."

Physics and velocity explain why someone hundreds of miles away could see or hear the meteor as it came roaring down from outer space. Mr. Beatty said the everyday shooting star is created by something no larger than a pea, but contains the same energy as a car traveling 200 mph.

Mr. Mak said an event of this nature happens somewhere around the world about once a month.

An asteroid about 20 meters in diameter crashed in Russia in 2013, damaging over 7,000 buildings. That sort of incident occurs about once per decade, Mr. Mak said.

Mr. Mak and Mr. Beatty said it's likely meteorites reached the ground Tuesday in Michigan. Mr. Mak received an email from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration member Wednesday pinpointing the debris field to Livingston County near 8 Mile Road.

Mr. Mak predicts many geologists, astronomers, and science enthusiasts will try to find souvenirs, as difficult as it may be.

"A needle in a haystack would be a simple task [by comparison]," he said. "Take a washing machine and now have one or two percent of the material survive the burn-up. Now look for that over a couple hundred square miles."

Blade news services contributed to this report.

Contact Jay Skebba at jskebba@theblade.com, 419-376-9414, or on Twitter @JaySkebbaBlade.

First Published January 17, 2018, 10:11 p.m.

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A flash of light from a meteor is seen over I-75 near Bloomfield Hills.  (Mike Austin, YouTube)
Screengrab of a slow moving meteor that was visible in northwest Ohio.
Possible impact point based on American Meteor Society data and plotted by Delta College Planetarium. Handout
Probable path of meteor based on American Meteor Society data points. Data analyzed and map created by Delta College Planetarium.
Mike Austin, YouTube
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