Massive Fireball Streaks Across New York Skies, Causing Explosive Boom

Some lucky New Yorkers who were looking up at the right time got to see a giant ball of light streak across the sky.

Soon after, witnesses reported hearing a super loud booms and even felt some shaking.

The rare but incredible celestial event happened on the 16th, but NASA is just now confirming that fireball was indeed a meteor that was disintegrating into earth's atmosphere.

While many would think meteors are only seen at nighttime, this happened in broad daylight - between 10am and noon - and that may have caused some confusion.

The meteor was spotted over Midtown Manhattan, with NASA saying it was traveling at around 41,000 miles per hour, abot 51 miles above the Big Apple. For reference, MedEvac helicopters fly around 2,000 feet above ground level.

The earthquake-like rocking and shaking was caused by the meteor's proximity to the earth's surface.

The meteor flew past the Statue of Liberty and streaked across southern Newark before disintegrating entirely around Mountainside, New Jersey. That's about 29 miles away from Manhattan.

As of print time, there are no reports of property damage or injuries. Some can argue that's a miracle considering how close the meteor was to earth.

Among the first people to see the fireball was Bill Cooke, who works at NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. He confirmed seeing meteors in the broad daylight is extremely rare:

You have to have one bright enough and it has to be right over New York to get all that attention.

Apparently people as far away as Maryland saw the fireball.

For those hoping there may be some meteorites scattered around Midtown, NASA says it is highly likely that if the meteor produced any, they likely got burned up in the atmosphere.

Also, the Department of Defense reportedly weighed in on this event, per NBC New York, and they say they weren't responsible for the big bang.  This includes military aircraft.

In the end, NASA confirmed it was just a big ol' meteor that tried taking out planet earth and failed miserably. At least it gave us a good show... at least that's what people who managed to see it probably said.

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