At precisely 12:44 p.m. The sound of a loud explosion shook residents in Bloomington, Indiana, and surrounding counties.
Locals quickly took to social media in search of answers, but found the source of the commotion a little more out of the ordinary than their usual small-town commotion.
What did they discover? The explosion was a fireball.
The winter fireballs are related to the Taurid meteor shower.
A local Facebook group titled "What's that noise?" was one of the many places people went to, buzzing with speculation about the source of the sound which was reported to have been heard for several tens of miles. There were many rumors of fires at a nearby naval base, military tests, a motor vehicle accident and more after comments on a post by local resident. None of these ended up being true.
People were left scratching their heads. Local emergency responders, who had helped to squash some of the swelling rumors, were stumped after having sent out multiple patrols in search of a cause.
Evans Fernandez, who was the first to pose the question in the popular group, told Space.com that she thought for a second that the primary was an earthquake.
Evans Fernandez was not the only one. I was working at my home in Bloomington when the window-rattling blast seemed to affect my whole house. I thought a tree or large limb had crashed into my roof. A quick inspection, most flatteringly captured by my front door security camera, ruled out any fallen objects, and I was ready to accept the small earthquake as the answer to this mystery too.
The United States Geological Survey did not detect any earthquakes in the area, even though the Indiana University seismic scales picked up a blip.
Nancy Lee, a commentator on Evans Fernandez's initial online post also recorded footage of the event with her Ring camera, which captured the boom.
The residents, reporters, and emergency officials were left wondering what made the explosion happen. The cloudy sky did not yield any further clues. The answer to everyone's question may have been realized sooner if it were a clearer day.
A few lucky breaks in the clouds line up perfectly for a few people. Twelve reports were made to the American Meteor Society detailing the trajectory and descent of a fireball, which was seen over Northern Kentucky.
The mystery of the "boom" over Indiana was solved by chance, as it turned out to be a bolide, which is a bright meteor making its way through Earth's atmosphere.
This event is similar to the fireball spotted over Chelyabinsk in 2013. The loud boom that I heard was most likely a result of the meteorite exploding as it came into contact with thicker regions of Earth's atmosphere, a phenomenon known as an air burst.
I'll be extra careful to keep my eyes open on clear days if it happens again. It is possible that I would have seen a meteorite from the window at the desk where I am typing this story. What a sight that would have been.
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