A huge boom reverberated around suburban Pittsburgh on New Year's Day, rattling homes and confusing residents. Community members and officials were were stumped . There was no seismic activity, no thunderstorm or any obvious signs of a detonation.
One resident tweeted security footage of the boom.
The National Weather Service confirmed that satellite data recorded a flash over Washington County shortly before 11:30 a.m., but agreed there was no thunderstorm or earthquake. Finally they tweeted its theory: An exploding meteor.
Exploding meteors, also called airbursts, are a kind of cosmic traffic accident when a larger piece of space rock collides with the Earth's atmosphere and explodes. A major one took place almost a decade ago in Russia, shattering windows and knocking over buildings.
One thing is for sure, at least for residents in Pittsburgh: 2022 started off with a bang.
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