Mystery ‘explosion’ heard over New York may have been ‘fireball falling from space’, meteor experts reveal

A FIREBALL is thought to have exploded over New York earlier this week as people reported hearing a loud boom and their houses shaking.

When it first happened people had no idea what was going on but now the American Meteor Society (AMS) may have the answer.

The AMS has said that witness reports of a "boom" and a bright streak of light in the sky was likely to have been a large fireball entering the Earth's atmosphere on Monday night.

One witness told The American Meteor Society: "It was so loud, my house shook, I felt it in my chest and had me stand still for a moment in panic.

"I got ready to load my children up with our emergency bags because I thought the power plant 12 miles away from me blew up."

The society received lots of reports about the incident.

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One witness thought the sonic boom sound was a power plant explodingCredit: Getty - Contributor

Mike Hankey, operations manager of the non-profit meteor astronomy organisation, told CNN: "What they were seeing was the light produced by the object colliding with the atmosphere."

A fireball is a bright and large meteor that soars from a vacuum in space at 1000s of miles an hour.

It can explode when it collides with the Earth’s atmosphere creating light streaks and a sonic boom sound.

Witnessing fireballs is a rare event and they can be difficult to confirm as they happen so quickly.

Nasa actually has 17 cameras devoted to capturing images of fireballs over the US but the cameras are turned off in daylight to protect them from the Sun so they were not able to capture the recent event.

Most accounts from the New York event state that the light streak and noise lasted from between 1.5 to 3.5 seconds.

So far there have been no reports of any damage caused by the fireball.

What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?

Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...

• Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
• Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
• Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
• Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
• Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)