NASA Confirms: VA, 9 More States, Saw Spectacular Meteor

VIRGINIA — More than a hundred eyewitnesses across Virginia and neighboring states reported seeing a fireball streak overhead Saturday night.

The meteor was reported at 9:08 p.m. by skywatchers in Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia filing reports with the American Meteor Society

NASA confirmed the sightings.

"An analysis of these reports indicates that the fireball first became visible 50 miles above the New York City suburb of Mamaroneck, moving at bit east of north at 38,000 miles per hour," the agency reported on social media. The space rock disintegrated around 30 miles above Norven Green State Forest, after travelling some 37 miles through the upper atmosphere. The meteor was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, according to the scientists.

A video submitted to AMS shows the traveler taking its impressive, albeit just three-second-long, final burn, backdropped by billows of gray clouds over New Jersey.

Two Meteor Showers This Spring

The Lyrid meteor shower, which runs April 15-29, peaks overnight April 21-22 just before the moon turns full.

It’s an average sky show, producing about 15 or 20 shooting stars an hour, but it historically has produced bright Lyrid fireballs that blaze across the sky and leave dust trails that last for several seconds, according to NASA. Fireballs can be bright enough to penetrate bright moonlight.

The Lyrids can fire off counts of as many as 100 shooting stars an hour, according to NASA. Sightings of these heavier showers occurred in Virginia in 1803.

The Eta Aquariids, which intersect with the Lyrids, offer a much better chance to see shooting stars. Sometimes called the Eta Aquarids, the meteor shower rambles along from April 15 to May 27, peaking around May 5-6, when the moon will appear about 14 percent full.

The Eta Aquariids have a broad peak, and that means skywatchers may see elevated numbers of meteors a few days before and after the peak. At the peak, about 30 meteors may be seen an hour, although as many as 60 an hour have been reported, according to NASA.

They’re known for speed, entering Earth’s atmosphere at about 148,000 miles an hour, and also for leaving glowing “trains” — incandescent bits of debris — that last for several seconds to minutes.