CLEVELAND — A 7-ton meteor that sped across the Cleveland sky at 45,000 miles per hour on Tuesday before breaking apart in a thunderous boom startled residents who feared an explosion.
People several states away reported seeing the bright fireball even though it was 9 a.m. The American Meteor Society said it received reports from Wisconsin to Maryland. NASA later confirmed that it was a meteor nearly 6 feet in diameter.
“This one really does look like it’s a fireball, which means it’s a meteorite — a small asteroid,” said astronomer Carl Hergenrother, the group’s executive director…