March 17 (Reuters) – A kaboom, \u2060a \u2060fireball and white streaks \u2060in the skies over Pennsylvania and Ohio – seen \u200bas far as Virginia and Canada – were probably the signs of a \u200cmeteorite landing near Cleveland \u200con Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service and \u2060scientists.<\/p>\n
Rattled \u2060residents dialed 911, and local emergency officials called the NWS \u200bwondering “what the heck?” at about 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT), said Bill Modzelewski, an NWS meteorologist in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re receiving reports across western Pennsylvania and \u200beastern Ohio of a loud boom and a fireball in the \u2060sky. \u2060Our satellite data suggest \u2060it \u200bwas possibly a meteor entering the atmosphere,” the NWS posted online.<\/p>\n
Laurence Garvie, \u200ba research professor \u2060and curator of the Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University, said the likely landing spot was Medina, about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland, where meteorite hunters lucky enough to \u2060locate the wreckage will likely find lots of little black rocks.<\/p>\n
The \u2060booming sound was when the space object broke the sound barrier at a speed somewhere between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour, according to Garvie. The American Meteor Society received more than 100 reports of sightings of the fireball, according to the online site EarthSky.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been getting calls and texts all morning. This is very exciting for \u2060us,” Garvie said. “They may just look like black stones on the ground, but you can actually hold something older than the Earth. Something from outer space. And we can \u200blearn new things from them.”<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Rich McKay in \u200bAtlanta; editing by Donna Bryson)<\/p>\n
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