Nation/World

Aliens, apocalypse, lightning? No, just a meteor rocking the Midwest

A bright meteor briefly swept across the sky over parts of the U.S. Midwest and Canada on Tuesday and then caused a powerful explosion that rattled homes and onlookers, officials said.

The meteor was seen in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario at about 8 p.m. Eastern time and registered a 2.0 magnitude tremor about 4 miles east of Saint Clair Shores in eastern Michigan, the United States Geological Survey said on its website.

The National Weather Service confirmed it was not a meteorological event but more likely a meteor.

"The NWS can confirm the flash and boom was NOT thunder or lightning, but instead a likely meteor," the NWS in Detroit said on Twitter.

The meteor sighting lit up social media with people posting videos and reaction.

"I can't believe there was a Meteor! It shook our house and made a large bang! We thought someone hit our house," Twitter user Jennifer Wilson said in a post.

Others had more ominous thoughts.

"I thought for sure I was either seeing the alien invasion or the apocalypse. It's awesome in retrospect, freaky … in real time," said a Twitter user who goes by the name Crash.

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