Bright Meteor Spotted Over Boston
BOSTON (CBS) - A meteor streaked through the skies over Boston Friday night, causing a wave of reports from witnesses up and down the east coast.
"What most people saw was a very bright meteor," Ron Dantowitz of the Clay Center Observatory told WBZ-TV. "What was unusual about this one is that it was seen by so many people in so many different states."
Sightings of the meteor have been reported as far south as North Carolina.
"An object this bright might have been size of a file cabinet," said Kelly Beatty of the Clay Center. "It doesn't take a very large object to make a very bright streak or meteor in sky."
Beatty said dozens upon dozens of reports came into the Clay Center from witnesses near and far. People took to social media sites like Twitter immediately to describe what they saw. Most people reported seeing the meteor shortly before 8 p.m. and that it appeared to be green in color.
"The fact that it appears to have broken up actually improves the chances that some pieces made it to the ground," says Beatty. "But the trajectories that I've seen so far suggest it probably ended up over the Atlantic Ocean."
According to Beatty, the only known meteor to fall to the ground and be discovered in Massachusetts came back in 1963 in Northampton. That meteor weighed only three-quarters of a pound.
Still, there are plenty of others that light up the skies on a daily basis.
"It happens every day, and in a case like this it puts on a really great show," said Beatty.
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