NASA Says A Meteor Exploded Over Pittsburgh On New Year's Day & It Was Like 30 Tons of TNT

Space helped out with the celebrations on New Year's Day in Pittsburgh, where an exploding meteor caused a boom loud enough to be heard across Pennsylvania.

NASA reported that a meteor blew up over Pittsburgh on January 1 at approximately 11:30 a.m., and as the meteor fell apart its explosion was equivalent to 30 tons of TNT.

An infrasound station picked up the blast wave, NASA said. That's how they knew it happened because it was cloudy that day and no one actually saw the explosion.

NASA says the meteor was about "a yard in diameter" and weighed half a ton when it came down, according to a post on Facebook. It was assumed to be travelling at about 45,000 miles per hour when it made its loud entrance.

“Had it not been cloudy, the fireball would have been easily visible in the daylight sky," NASA said. It added that the fireball would have been "about 100 times the brightness of the Full Moon.”

The shattering sound caused quite a frenzy among people in the Pittsburgh area, leading to a bunch of panicked 911 calls, reported CNN.

The Allegheny County Twitter account even sent out a tweet about receiving “reports of a loud boom [and] shaking in the South Hills.”

Thunder, lightning, and earthquakes were all quickly ruled out as possibilities for the source of the sound.

People shared their experience of the exploding meteor in the comment section of the Facebook post.

“Heard, felt, windows rattled in Lewistown, PA by several neighbors! Would have loved to have seen it,” one person wrote.

There are no reports so far of anyone actually seeing the explosion or capturing it on video, but people definitely heard it.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.