Watch CBS News

Meteorite appears to hit Cuba

Meteorite appears to hit Cuba
Meteorite appears to hit Cuba 00:17

A meteorite appeared to hit western Cuba early Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Key West said. In a tweet, the National Weather Service said its radar "may have detected the meteor" at 1:21 p.m. near Viñales, Cuba.

The NOAA's GOES East satellite also detected the apparent meteor flash, NASA Sport said in a blog post

Amid speculation on social media, Cuban state media denied that any planes had crashed, calling it a "natural, physical phenomenon."

State-run Juventud Rebelde said a team of specialists from Cuba's Geophysics and Astronomy Institute had been sent to Pinar del Rio to study a possible meteor strike.

In January 2018, Michigan's night skies were lit up by a meteor. Numerous videos posted to social media showed the night sky lighting up just after 8 p.m. local time on Jan. 17, 2018.

"Heard a boom and I kind of thought I felt something -- and my dog freaked out," one caller told CBS Detroit at the time.  

The biggest meteor hit in modern history -- the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia -- flattened 800 square miles of forest.

And in the much-distant past, 65 million years ago, a 6-mile-wide asteroid impact caused 70 percent of life on Earth to go extinct, including many dinosaurs.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.