While news reports have been scant, there was a major cosmic event over California and Nevada this past Sunday. A meteor weighing approximately 70 tons rocketed across the sky at a stunning 33,500 mph and exploded in the atmosphere. The meteor sighting was reported by residents of both states and those in California also reported the explosion, which rattled house windows across a large area of the state and also set off building and car alarms.
The meteor, which was roughly the size of a minivan, although much heavier due to the density, and traveling at such a high velocity, was estimated by the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office to have exploded with the force of roughly3.8 kilotons of TNT.
While NASA is busy mapping earth-threatening asteroids, one of this size is difficult to spot in advance. Thankfully most asteroids in this range are likely to burn up upon entry into earth’s atmosphere, as this one did. Some experts think that it could have possibly scattered tiny pieces of debris across the Sierra Nevada mountains, but no fragments were likely large enough to do any damage. You can check out the video below.