Fireball causes earthquake and panic in Michigan

DASHCAM footage shows the dramatic moment a giant fireball fell out of the sky. The mysterious object caused an earthquake and terrified those who saw it.

A SPECTACULAR fireball meteor streaked across the night sky — causing a loud boom and an earthquake which terrified residents in the United States.

Incredible new footage of the rare moment was captured on a dash cam, as The American Meteor Society (AMS) said it received hundreds of reports of a fireball Tuesday night over Michigan.

Reports of sightings of the object, which caused a magnitude 2.0 earthquake, came from as far away as Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Ontario, Canada.

Experts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have now confirmed a bright light and what sounded like thunder in the sky was a meteoroid.

BREAKING NEWS FOOTAGE: Meteor passes over Southeast Michigan, with residents from Livonia, Dearborn, Novi, and Allen Park hearing a large boom. pic.twitter.com/DeIrC1ScqJ

— The Anon Journal (@TheAnonJournal) January 17, 2018

Alleged meteor flew over Michigan near Ann arbor tonight, looked pretty cool #meteormichigan pic.twitter.com/svaQOyaB6o

— Aiden Langlois (@X_EpIcAiDeN_X) January 17, 2018

Some Michigan residents reported their homes shaking.

“I just saw a big ol’ ball of fire falling and I started screaming,” Barbara Dwyer, of Decatur, Michigan, told WWMT. She saw the fireball just after 8pm.

“It scared the heck out of me,” Ms Dwyer said. “The big ball was all circled in red. It was really weird that was the first time I every saw anything like that.

“I’ve seen meteor showers. It didn’t look like a meteor, it just looked like a ball of fire flying across the sky. It had a tail on it.”

AMS says the reports suggest a space rock penetrated deep into the Earth’s atmosphere before it broke apart.

Bill Cooke with NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office told The Detroit News the ball of flames was “definitely a meteoroid” and a rare sight.

The prevalence of cameras and mobile phones has seen more footage of meteorites captured on film than ever before. Source: Supplied.

Mr Cooke said the meteor could be a “superbolide,” — which is a meteor with a brightness between that of the moon and the sun. NASA estimated the meteor was around one metre in diameter and travelled at about 45,000 km/h.

David Gerdes, a faculty member with the University of Michigan’s astronomy department, told Patchthat there are about 1000 visible meteors per second but most were the size of a grain of sand.

He said a meteor that size might hit the earth once every few years — often in places where there were no people, such as over the ocean, or during the day, making it harder to see.

“This event was extraordinary because the meteor was pretty large, flew over a densely populated area and happened at night making it easy to see,” Mr Gerdes said.

According to National Geographic, meteorites are being caught on camera more frequently in recent times because more people have cameras and mobile phones available.

— with AP