A meteor exploded in the Michigan sky on Tuesday night, momentarily illuminating the dark sky of Detroit.
The US Geological Survey confirmed a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere about five miles off New Haven, Michigan. Its explosion rocked the ground at a force as strong as a magnitude 2.0 earthquake.
Netizens who were able to witness the event said on social media that they saw a bright spot streaking through the sky before it suddenly bathed the darkness with light, which was reportedly seen as far away as New York and parts of Canada. Loud booms were heard after.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed its meteor camera caught the event at exactly 8:08 p.m. at Oberlin College, Ohio.
The scientific organization, which estimates the meteor at one or two yards across or about the size of a cargo van, said it traveled around 40,000 to 50,000 miles before arriving on Earth. It is still analyzing the data of the meteor shower explosion, which it described as a rare "huge event" in Michigan.
According to Detroit News, the incident sparked a hunt for possible meteorites, or the surviving pieces of meteor that made it to the ground.
Michael Narlock, head of astronomy at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, said that while it rocked the Earth, the explosion itself did not hit the ground.
"So we're talking about finding the debris field, and that's hard to determine. There's still some debate about what path it took," he explained.
Experts say finding these fallen debris would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Scientists would have to check thousands of rocks around the estimated area. It would also require a very trained eye to find the difference between a meteorite and just a really old rock.
There is also that very strict rule of getting permission first before searching private property.
Federal law states that meteorites that fall on private land automatically belong to whoever owns that property.
