On Friday night, residents of the northwestern United States and British Columbia spotted a bright fireball streaking across the sky. Karina Marquardt of Spokane County initially thought lightning had flashed, but the sky was clear. A security camera at her home captured two bursts of light—first yellow-white, then blue-green.
The event occurred on the final day of the Perseid meteor shower’s peak, but NASA clarified that the object was unrelated to it. It was a fragment of an asteroid about 16 inches in diameter and weighing approximately 170 pounds. It traveled about 36 miles through the upper atmosphere at roughly 33,000 mph before disintegrating, releasing energy equivalent to the explosion of 10 tons of TNT.
The U.S. Geological Survey identified the object as a bolide—a large meteor—and published an infrasound signal recorded by instruments near several volcanoes. More than 250 people told the American Meteor Society they had seen the bright trail from northern Oregon to British Columbia. Despite smoke from wildfires, clouds and light pollution, many residents of the region were able to witness the rare spectacle.
Based on: Fireball seen over Pacific Northwest, but it wasn’t Perseids meteor shower