Brilliant meteor flashes across Michigan sky
BATTLE CREEK, Michigan (KTRK) -- A massive ball of fire, first a cool blue and then turning bright white, flew across the night sky in Michigan.
This dash camera video from local WWMT photojournalist Zack Lawler caught the meteor flying over Battle Creek.
Kalamazoo astronomer Richard Bell says a meteor is basically a small chunk of rock or metal that enters the earth's atmosphere and starts to burn up.
"In front of it, it compresses the gases of our atmosphere. The heated gas vaporizes the meteoroid and when that happens we refer to it as a meteor," said Bell.
It makes for a pretty sight at night when the skies are clear, which is rare this time of year.
The National Weather Service says it was a meteor that caused a magnitude 2-point-zero earthquake.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake was centered about five miles west-southwest of New Haven. That's about 40 miles northeast of Detroit.
