India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A loud boom sounded over much of Northern California early Sunday, as an apparent result of a meteor shower. National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist in Sacramento, California, Stefanie Henry said the meteor was streaking across the sky when it broke up above the Earth, sending the sound reverberating across the area. According to NWS reports, the meteor was seen in California from Sacramento to Orange County, hundreds of miles to the south, Henry told Los Angeles Times. Though the shower occurred on Saturday evening, beams of light will likely be visible for several days, she said, adding that light pollution around large cities such as Los Angeles may make it more difficult to catch a glimpse. Sunday's unusual daytime shooting star came just after the pre-dawn peak of the Lyrid meteor shower, an annual display that occurs when the Earth passes through remnants of space debris left by a comet that last approached the planet in 1861 on its 400-year orbit of the sun, said another NWS meteorologist, Mike Smith. While meteors visible at night typically range in size from a pebble to a grain of sand, a meteor large enough to be seen during daylight hours would presumably be as big as a baseball or softball, Smith added.

Meteor shower behind loud boom in Northern California