Meteor the culprit behind loud 'boom' heard across northern Utah, officials say
Two of the speeding meteor pieces registered as lightning strikes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A meteor was likely behind the loud boom residents heard across northern Utah on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Residents reported hearing — and feeling — the boom at roughly 8:30 a.m. local time on Saturday. Meteors sometimes create sonic booms as they break up while speeding through the atmosphere.
The NWS says its lightning mapper caught what likely were trails from a pair of pieces from the meteor.
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"Bolstering the meteor theory for this morning's boom in Utah, the two reddish pixels shown over Davis and Morgan counties are from the GOES-17 Lightning Mapper, but not associated with evidence of thunderstorm activity in satellite or radar. Likely the meteor trail/flash," NWS Salt Lake City wrote on Twitter.
The meteor strike came amid the Perseid meteor shower, which lasted throughout Friday and Saturday.
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The annual Perseid shower comes as the Earth travels through the remnants of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Most of the remnants are pea-sized and burn up quickly, but some larger ones make it deeper into the atmosphere.