NASA provides update on New Year’s Day meteor explosion in Pennsylvania

An exploding meteor that rocked western Pennsylvania on New Year's Day was about a yard in diameter, with a mass close to half a ton, NASA confirmed on Monday, adding that the fireball would have been easily visible if it wasn't cloudy that day.

In a post, NASA's Meteor Watch social media site said, "A nearby infrasound station registered the blast wave from the meteor as it broke apart; the data enabled an estimate of the energy at 30 tons of TNT. If we make a reasonable assumption as to the meteor's speed (45,000 miles per hour), we can ballpark the object's size at about a yard in diameter, with a mass close to half a ton."

In a previous post, NASA Meteor Watch said that it was aware of numerous reports of sonic booms heard in western Pennsylvania a few minutes before 11:30 AM on January 1, 2021. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper on the GOES-16 satellite picked up a strong meteor signature around 11:20 AM, which makes it the likely culprit of the sounds.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service (NWS) said that the event was not completely rare as it was notified about the same 'boom' sound in Hardy County, WV back in September 2021.

we actually got notified about the same 'boom' sound in Hardy County, WV back in September. So not completely rare. pic.twitter.com/metQ6g2FOm

— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) January 3, 2022