Fireball over U.S. east coast

Last week, Congress held hearings on preparing for Near Earth Objects, as described on Daily Kos by jamess in Space Rocks move Congress, Climate Change impacts not so much and DarkSyde in This week in science: and Neo was its name-o!  I'll have more on those hearings later. Right now I'll just note that an event happened Friday evening that may have focused the attention of the U.S. Representatives involved, a fireball visible from Washington, D.C. Tariq Malik of Space.com has more detail in Meteor Over Manhattan: East Coast Fireball Sets Internet Abuzz, published in LiveScience.

A bright meteor briefly outshined the lights of New York City Friday evening (March 22), according to reports by witnesses who used Twitter and the Internet to report sightings of the fireball streaking over a broad stretch of the U.S. East Coast.

"Strange Friday night … a meteor passed over my house tonight!" wrote one New Yorker writing as Yanksmom19.

The first fireball sightings came at about 8 p.m. EDT (0000 March 23 GMT) and sparked more than 500 witness reports to the American Meteor Society. Reports of the meteor flooded Twitter from New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.

snowhound on YouTube has a video of the fireball in Meteor on March 22 on security cam in Thurmont MD.

This footage was shared on my FB page by Kim Fox in Thurmont MD. Thousands across the eastern US saw this around 7:50 PM EDT on March 22 2013.

First Twitter, now Facebook. Welcome to the era of social media in science.