Meteorite rips through sky, explodes over western Cuba
After flying over the Florida Keys atoll in the southeastern United States, the meteor exploded west of Cuba, raining debris on homes there.
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| Some local residents shared images of black rocks that they believe are fragments of the recently "landed" space rock. |
The National Weather Service in Key West, Florida, said it received reports that a meteorite flew over the Florida Keys and fell west of Cuba.
The Sun reported that the meteorite tore through the sky before exploding and raining debris on local homes.
According to RT, locals said they heard two loud noises when the meteor exploded near the town of Vinales, in the province of Pinar del Rio. It left a huge trail of smoke in the sky and rained down small rocks, shattering the windows of some houses.
No casualties have been reported yet.
Several local residents shared images of black rocks that they believed were debris from the space rock that had just “landed.” Reporter Fátima Rivera Amador of the local channel TelePinar was among the first to post photos of the charred rock that looked like a meteorite. The images were then widely shared on social media in both Cuba and the Florida Keys.
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| Cases of meteorite fragments hitting residential areas are relatively rare. |
While the exact origin of the meteorite remains unclear, the American Meteorological Service (AMS) this week gave a heads-up about meteor activity from a series of telltale flashes.
There was initially a lot of confusion about the meteorite explosion. Some news outlets suggested it was a large plane crash. Ignacio Luis Gonzalez Vidal, who identified himself on Twitter as an independent reporter, even claimed it was a military plane carrying Cuban soldiers returning from Venezuela. However, there was no evidence to support this claim.
Cuban state media denied the plane crash, saying it was a "natural phenomenon." A team of experts from the Cuban Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy was sent to Pinar del Rio to investigate.
Meteorite fragments hitting residential areas are relatively rare. In 2013, a meteorite explosion rocked Russia’s Urals region. Thousands of homes lost windows and shattered walls, and the blast sent shockwaves through the area. More than a thousand people were injured, including 200 children. Many of the victims were injured by broken glass.
