A meteorite exploded Sunday night in northern Vermont: buildings were swaying with an energy release equivalent to 440 pounds of TNT, officials said.
The fireball was seen by hundreds of witnesses as it moved through the atmosphere at 42,000 miles per hour, NASA said in a post on Facebook.
The space rock was first seen about 52 miles above Mount Mansfield State Forest before burning through Orleans County about 33 miles into the sky.
“The space rock fragmented violently, producing a pressure wave that shook the buildings and generated the sound heard by those close to the trajectory,” NASA said in its Facebook post.
“A beautiful firework, courtesy of Mother Nature,” the agency said.
An observer told WPTZ that he did not hear a single peep of the fireball as it crashed.
“There was no sound,” Al Gregoritsch said at the exit. “It simply came to our notice then. It is a phenomenon that I will never forget ”.