American Meteor Society
On October, 9, 1992, a very bright fireball flew over West Virginia, traveled some 700km (435 miles) north-east and ended-up its flight over the Peekskill northern Westchester County. This event is among the most historic meteorite events on record. Not only did at least 16 cameras caught the fireball on tape (mainly by high school football fans taping local games), but also a resulting 12kg (26 pounds) meteorite crashed through the back of a car.
The fireball, which traveled in an approximately northeasterly direction has been described as “huge” and “greenish” by numerous eyes witnesses from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington DC. The fireball attained an estimated peak visual magnitude of – 13 (comparable to the Full Moon) and traveled at the approximative velocity of 14.7km/s (9.1 miles per second – velocity at the beginning of the video records).
Below is a compilation of some of the videos of the event:
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Peekskill meteorite, the famous Chevy Malibu Classic is now in Paris to be part of an exhibition on meteorites at France’s national natural history museum — Muséum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle.
More info about the Peekskill Fall:
- The Peekskill Meteorite and Fireball (The Peekskill Consortium)
- The Peekskill Meteorite exhibition (American Museum of Natural History)
- Brown, P., et al., 1994. Nature, 367, 6524 – 626.
- Beech, M., et al., 1995, Earth, Moon and Planets, 68, 189 – 197.
I was 9 about to be ten in a week and a half when this happened. I was in Arnold Pennsylvania 20 miles from Pittsburgh and i remember chasing the meteor. It wasn’t just green it lit of multiple colors but was mainly green. I chased it for about a while block by then it was too far away. It flew directly over my head i can show to this day where i saw and chased it. One of the most amazing thing i ever saw. The path on the map is false as I’m said it flew over Arnold Pennsylvania. I can also hear it streaking across the sky sounding like a rocket
Me too…….I was 20yrs old, and walking out of my grandmothers driveway in Natrona Heights. Saw it streaking across the sky over and during the Highlands High School Football Game. I’ll never forget it.
Tonight, June 25th 2019 at 2:30am, (I live in Ft. Lauderdale now) and I saw something flaming across the sky, and thought it was another meteor, but it was only Elon Musks Space-X Heavy rocket boosters from the launch from Cape Canaveral…..!
I was standing in my office parking lot in Centerville, OH (south of Dayton, OH) talking with my business associate, when we noticed this ball of light coming out of the southwest towards us with a trail of sparks behind it. I bet we watched for a good 20 to 30 seconds as it approached and passed, going northeast toward Pennsylvania. It was an awesome sight to see and I won’t ever forget it. We heard the following days after that it had landed in Peekskill, NY and damaged a parked car.
My friend and I were sitting on an apartment balcony at Penn State and watched this thing go by. It really was incredible how bright it was and how long it stayed visible.
I recorded this from Fairfax City,Virginia with my new camcorder. I’m now looking to buy a piece of it for me. 30 years already….wow.
I was only 18yrs old but I still remember the fall Friday evening like it was yesterday, I can even remember the exact location where I was when driving. I was driving west in Owings MD, and had a clear unobstructed view of the north through the windshield passenger-side window. Something bright caught my eye to the NW, I was young/naive at the time but had enough brains to know it was unusual. I slowed/stopped in the middle of the road to get a better view of what I thought was an airliner disintegrating from my NW to the NE. It was very bright, much slower than I would have thought, and slightly fragmented once or twice during its flight then terminated with a large fragmentation. I found out the next day it was a fireball, had to wait until the mid 00’s to find out it actually landed in NY! I then found this was a widely “taped” event, some of the best videos online were taken just 10 or so miles away, watching them so many years later confirmed that my memory was intact, yes, it was as amazing as I remembered it to be. This was dare I say a life-changing event for me. It definitely cemented my interest in the night sky/space and when the KT dinosaur extinction impact theory was put forth several years later it was only that much more believable and terrifying.
I too remember watching this meteor streak across Willows driving range in Plum Pennsylvania. Perfectly from right to left across the range probably southwest to northeast. I was hitting golf balls with my future husband-such a sweet memory.
I had just turned 17 and was riding back to northwest DC from my mom’s art show in the back of a convertable Ford Mustang. The top down due to the nice night. I happened to look up and was astonished by the green ball of fire streaking by! My relatives in the car did not know why I was freaking out since it took a moment to explain, but by then it was gone. A very memorable experience.
I was 20 driving a Suzuki Samurai (no top) traveling west bound on 114 Fredrick Md. I remember this so well.