On November 14, 2023, around 6:30 p.m., many people in northern Minnesota witnessed a bright light and a loud boom that shook their windows and rattled their nerves.
Some even reported seeing debris falling from the sky. What was behind this mysterious event? Was it a meteor, a plane crash, or something else?
“Through additional conversation, reviewing the initial video and applying mathematics to the timing of the flash and boom, it was calculated that the source of the flash and boom were less than a mile apart,” Christopher Muller, emergency management director with the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office, wrote.
“Whether the source was stationary or mobile is also undetermined, but numerous witnesses reported seeing it over an area of approximately 50 miles and hearing the boom even a greater distance away.”
Muller, who heard the blast from his home east of Bemidji, described the event: “It shook windows, walls and rattled the dishes,” he wrote.
In an update Tuesday afternoon, Muller said further investigation and consultation with NASA experts has revealed the incident was unlikely to be caused by a meteor.
“They analyzed the video frame by frame and determined the object is too horizontal to indicate it was a meteor and additional data needed to be collected to further eliminate possible other interfering objects,” Muller wrote. “It is undetermined if the two videos are related.”
The security camera footage capturing the flash and boom was captured by a resident in Nymore.
“This has certainly been an interesting puzzle to try and solve, and we still don’t know exactly what it was,” Muller shared in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“We appreciate the assistance we’ve received from federal agencies and science community in ruling out what it wasn’t and will continue to provide any subsequent information that is learned,” he continued. “The fact this was seen and heard across such a large area is what is a mystery. What was it?”