MEDINA COUNTY, Ohio — We are learning more details about the meteor that appeared in the skies over Northeast Ohio on Tuesday, delivering a boom that was heard in communities all over the region.
According to NASA, “an analysis of currently available data places first visibility of the meteor above Lake Erie.” Experts add that the first visibility showed the meteor at an altitude of 50 miles above the lake.
Officials say the “small asteroid” was nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighed approximately 7 tons. It created a “fireball” that moved southeast at 45,000 mph before “fragmenting over Valley City” in Medina County.
NASA says fragments of the meteor continued southward, “producing meteorites in the vicinity of Medina County.”
“The asteroid unleashed an energy of 250 tons of TNT when it fragmented, resulting in a pressure wave which propagated to the ground, causing the booms and explosive noises heard by many of the public. It may have also shook houses north of Medina,” NASA added in its report of the meteor.
The American Meteor Society reported that eyewitnesses in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia and the Canadian province of Ontario all filed reports about “a very bright daylight fireball seen March 17.”
#MeteorSighting: A very bright daylight fireball was observed by witnesses from the northeast U.S. and Canada this morning, March 17. An analysis of currently available data places first visibility of the meteor above Lake Erie. The fireball – caused by a small asteroid nearly 6… pic.twitter.com/RREY3TeZ8F
— NASA Space Alerts (@NASASpaceAlerts) March 17, 2026