NASA is estimating that a meteor passed above parts of New York City on Tuesday morning, accounting for glimpses of a “fireball” in the sky reported by some residents. Entering the atmosphere at 34,000 miles per hour, the meteor is believed to have passed over the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating around 29 miles above Manhattan’s Midtown district. The website of the American Meteor Society, which collects reports by hobbyists, showed more than a dozen fireball sightings across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut just after 11 a.m. local time. Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, told local station PIX11 that it appeared no meteorites had been produced by the event. As for the loud “boom” other residents reported hearing in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, NASA tentatively attributed it to military activity being conducted in the area around the time the meteor passed overhead, according to WNBC.
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