- A meteor was spotted over northern Michigan early Sunday morning
- Michigan Storm Chasers, which called it an unconfirmed meteorite, captured video of the object breaking apart
- NASA says it was likely a small fragment of a comet
A flash over northern Michigan before sunrise Sunday caught the attention of sky watchers after a network of cameras recorded what appeared to be a meteor breaking apart as it fell toward Earth.
Michigan Storm Chasers, an unofficial weather-focused Facebook group, posted clips showing what it described as an “unconfirmed meteorite” around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday near Houghton Lake in Roscommon County, followed by footage from Alcona County, where the object appeared to break apart near Lost Lake Woods.
It’s not clear if the object was actually a meteorite, however. NASA defines meteorites, often called shooting stars, as meteoroids that survive their fall to Earth, while meteors burn up in the atmosphere.
“An analysis of these accounts … shows that the meteor first became visible 62 miles above Hubbard Lake, north of Barton City, Michigan,” Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteor Environments Office, told Bridge Michigan.
“Moving a bit northeast at 98,500 miles per hour, it traveled 82 miles through the upper atmosphere before disintegrating at an altitude of 46 miles above Lake Huron.”
The meteor appears to have been caused by “a small comet fragment” and was not part of any currently active meteor shower, Cooke added. It was “too small and too fast to have dropped any meteorites into Lake Huron.”
Michigan Storm Chasers, which boasts a network of 90 weather and Northern Lights cameras across the state, posted multiple clips of the object as filmed in Grand Blanc, Six Lakes, Houghton Lake and Lincoln.
“From what I can tell… it looks like this thing broke apart and fragmented, so it must have been a big-ish rock,” said Edwin Bergin, astronomy professor at the University of Michigan.
“Looking at the frequency, the objects that do this are kind of rare.“
How to catch meteors:
The best time to spot meteors is late at night, in areas free from city lights. Michigan offers several prime viewing locations, including six designated dark sky parks:
- Lake Hudson Recreation Area
- Negwegon State Park
- Port Crescent State Park
- Rockport Recreation Area
- Thompson’s Harbor State Park
- Wilderness State Park
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