A fireball blazed across New York City on Tuesday before exploding over New Jersey and shaking the entire region.
William Cooke, the head of the space agency's Meteoroid Environments Office, told The Canadian Press that the fireball was first sighted at an altitude of 51 miles (82 kilometers) above Manhattan at around 11:17 a.m. Tuesday.
The meteor then passed over the southern part of Newark, New Jersey, before disintegrating 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the town of Mountainside, he said.
Its exact trajectory is uncertain, since reports are based only on eyewitness accounts.
NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office keeps track of dangerous asteroids, but objects like the one that caused this fireball are only about a foot in diameter and don't survive to reach the ground.
They're only able to detect them when they enter the atmosphere and create a meteor or fireball.
The NASA Meteor Watch Facebook page posted that the meteor originated over New York City and moved west into New Jersey at a speed of 38,000 miles per hour.
