A bright green fireball fell from the sky into Lake Michigan early Monday morning. Such events were not unknown in ancient mythologies when the gods were displeased, but scientists at the Field Museum and the American Meteor Society have assured us that it was just a meteorite breaking into pieces as it entered the earth’s atmosphere. The technical term for it, though, is a “sporadic fireball,” which is still pretty awesome.
Unlike many meteorites, this one also made noise as it fell. Paul Mayer, the Field’s collection manager of fossil invertebrates, was in Freedonia, Wisconsin, at the southwest end of the meteorite’s trajectory, when it passed over. “I . . . was woken up by a large boom that shook the whole house,” he writes. “It sounded like thunder and I thought maybe it was a train hitting something. I got up and looked out the window, but did not see anything. It was not until the next day when I saw the news that I realized it must have been the meteorite.”
Check out this INCREDIBLE video of the #meteor this morning as viewed from a Lisle, IL police car dash cam! Thanks to Lisle PD for sharing! pic.twitter.com/uYELKkBxRO
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) February 6, 2017
