Meteor spotted in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware traveled at 30,000 mph before disintegrating, NASA says

A meteor spotted in the Philadelphia region Tuesday afternoon traveled more than 100 miles before disintegrating, NASA said. 

More than 200 people from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut reported seeing the meteor, according to the American Meteor Society. 

NASA said that February through April is peak fireball season, and meteors are quite common, but they usually occur over the ocean or unpopulated areas.

NASA report on meteor

In a report, NASA said the meteor was seen in the sky at around 2:30 p.m.

An analysis of the accounts and publicly accessible cameras shows the meteor first became visible 48 miles above the Atlantic Ocean, off the shore of Mastic Beach in Long Island, New York. 

According to NASA, the meteor was moving at 30,000 miles per hour and traveled 117 miles through the upper atmosphere before it disintegrated 27 miles above Galloway, which is just north of Atlantic City. 

Witnesses react to seeing meteor in New Jersey

Nicholas Samuelian said he was driving on Route 70 in Medford Lakes, and he saw a bright light in the sky and originally thought it was the sun reflecting off an airplane.

“I didn’t know what to think at first I never seen anything like that, so it was one of the craziest things I have ever seen,” Samuelian said.

“Immediately after that it started breaking up into pieces and there were all different flashes of light and that’s when I realized I should grab my phone and start taking a video,” he added.

Nicholas Brucato, of Manchester Township, said he saw the same streak moving across the sky.

“I had my phone in my hand thankfully and I started recording it and I thought it was pretty cool, and then two to three minutes later I heard a big boom,” Brucato said. “I don’t know if that was related at all. I’m not sure.”

Many others on social media said they also heard a boom.

NASA said when meteors travel through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, exceeding the speed of sound, which eventually leads to sonic booms.

“After that I posted it to a Facebook group and it just blew up from there,” Brucato said.

What are the differences between a fireball, meteoroid, meteor and meteorite? 

A meteoroid is small asteroid in space. It becomes a meteor when the light is emitted from a meteoroid or asteroid as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and beings to burn.

A fireball is a meteor brighter than the planet Venus, and a meteorite is a fragment that survives passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground.