Fireball over Cuba exploded with energy of 1,400 tons of TNT, NASA says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A fireball over Cuba, different from the one depicted above, exploded with a lot of force. (Wikimedia)
That's a big fireball.
After a smoky trail zipped across the sky over Florida on Friday, a loud boom could be heard just before a meteor broke up over Cuba and scattered small pieces of rock onto the island.
NASA published data showing that the meteor's collision with Earth's atmosphere produced as much energy as 1,400 tons of TNT.
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These types of events, which are not generally rare, tend to occur over water or sparsely-populated areas.
However, according to the International Meteor Organization, hundreds of people witnessed this daytime fireball and 13 filed eyewitness reports in Florida and off the coast of Cuba.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Not long after the boom was heard, reports surfaced online of meteorite fragments being found on the ground in Cuba.
A refrigerator-sized meteor was captured by stargazers over Minnesota in December, an event that was hailed as one of the "biggest of the year."
A man in the U.K. captured video in October of another meteor exploding and then disintegrating over a castle.