Reports of a loud explosion reverberated across New England, USA, on Saturday afternoon, prompting authorities to investigate the cause of the double boom that rattled structures in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The American Meteor Society revealed that the noises were triggered by a meteor measuring nearly 1 meter in diameter entering the atmosphere near the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, north of Boston.
NASA officials confirmed that the celestial object was composed of natural materials, ruling out the possibility of it being a satellite or space debris. The meteor made its entry into the atmosphere at 2:06 p.m. According to Robert Lunsford, a program monitor at the American Meteor Society, numerous reports flooded in from areas spanning Delaware to Montreal, with individuals reporting hearing the dual boom, feeling the ground shake, or witnessing the fireball resembling a daytime shooting star.
Lunsford described the fireball as larger than a typical occurrence, estimating it to be around a yard wide. However, he deemed it improbable that the meteor made contact with the ground, suggesting that if it did not disintegrate during its descent, it would have landed in the ocean. He mentioned, “Most meteors burn up before reaching the ground.”
NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel disclosed that the meteor was traveling at a speed of approximately 120,700 km/h and likely disintegrated roughly 60 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. The agency calculated that the energy released during its fragmentation was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, accounting for the explosive sounds.
Numerous individuals in various states took to social media to report feeling the buildings shake. Videos circulated on the internet captured the sounds of two rapid booms, devoid of any visible signs of fire or smoke. Several individuals lodged reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, documenting the tremors they experienced with the National Earthquake Information Center, as confirmed by agency spokesperson Steve Sobie.
Though the agency created an event page due to the influx of “Did you feel it?” reports on its website, Sobie clarified that no seismic activity was detected by the organization’s seismographs, indicating that the tremors were not linked to an earthquake.
