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Mysterious Fireball Reported Along Atlantic Coast
Meteor suspected
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Mar 30, 09 2:28 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Residents along the mid-Atlantic coast spotted a huge fireball last night—likely a meteor—followed by an explosion and a loud noise minutes later, the Virginian-Pilot reports. “This brilliant green meteor was probably two or three times brighter than the moon,” says one amateur astronomer who spotted the flash. “Then it turned orange with a white core and disappeared.”
A loud, low frequency noise shook houses in Norfolk and Virginia Beach soon thereafter. Most reports put the blast and the noise at 9:50pm, but one man said he spotted a flash of light at 2:30am. The explosions indicate the meteor entered deep into the atmosphere, says an astronomy expert, making it likely that pieces fell to Earth.