NASA confirms meteor caused loud boom across Northeast Ohio

Multiple people from across Northeast Ohio have called the News 5 newsroom to report hearing a loud boom.

A NASA spokesperson spoke with reporter Clay LePard, confirming the meteor was spotted near Medina.

"I woke up this morning, and the sky fell, so I feel like Chicken Little right now," Bill Cooke, NASA's lead for the Meteoroid Environment Office, said.

Cooke said the meteor was moving 44,000 mph, "which is fast for a human but slow for a meteor."

According to the National Weather Service, the loud boom was caused by the meteor.

News 5 anchor Damon Maloney spoke with the National Weather Service and was told that early information is "suggesting that the boom was the result of a meteor" based on satellite imagery and lightning mapping technology.

Dr. Ralph Harvey from Case Western told Clay LePard that the meteor was sized between an engine block and a full-blown car that hit the earth's atmosphere heading from north to south.

"It was at a very high altitude when it hit the atmosphere," Harvey said.

He said the chances of it hitting something are pretty slim.

"At this moment in time, the people in that area are very lucky people. I hope everybody that goes out on a dog walk or strolling through the fields or the parking lot, I hope they're all keeping their eyes open for a rock that looks out of place," Harvey said. "Rocks can't handle that pressure very well, so it blew up and made this beautiful fireball."

Meteors going through the air, causing a boom, happen several times a day, but what makes this unusual is that it went over a populated area, Harvey said.

Reports of the boom were heard from as far west as Norwalk and as far east as Pennsylvania.

The reports began at 8:56 a.m.

News 5 will update this story when we learn more.