Meteor streaks across Pittsburgh region
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The boom that rattled parts of the Pittsburgh region Tuesday morning was likely a shock wave from a meteor passing overhead, the National Weather Service confirmed via satellite imagery.
The big picture: Social media buzzed as the meteor flashed across Western Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio.
Reality check: The meteor did not make landfall, per Axios Cleveland.
Zoom in: National Weather Service Pittsburgh employee Jared Rackley caught a video of the meteor.
- The Pittsburgh Scanner social media account said an officer near UPMC Children's in Lawrenceville called to report a "rocket or something burning like a meteorite or something of that nature."
Zoom out: Meteors travel as fast as 160,000 miles per hour, and the compressed air builds up into a shock wave.
The bottom line: Meteors are common, but only a small fraction are close enough to produce sonic booms, experts tell Signal Cleveland.