Reports of a sudden explosion reverberated across New England in the United States on Saturday afternoon, leading to a swift response from law enforcement agencies and concerned citizens seeking to decipher the cause of a dual blast that rattled structures in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The American Meteor Society clarified that the booming sounds were attributable to a meteor, measuring nearly one meter in width, entering the Earth’s atmosphere near the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, just north of Boston.
NASA officials verified that the celestial object was a natural meteor and not man-made space debris or a satellite. The meteor made its atmospheric entry at precisely 2:06 p.m.
Robert Lunsford, a program monitor at the American Meteor Society, disclosed that the organization had received numerous accounts spanning from Delaware to Montreal. Witnesses reported hearing the double boom, feeling ground tremors, or observing a blazing fireball resembling a daytime shooting star.
Lunsford described the meteor as larger than a typical fireball, estimating its size to be about a yard wide. He expressed skepticism about the meteor making landfall, suggesting it likely disintegrated or fell into the ocean if it survived the descent.
NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel disclosed that the meteor was hurtling at a speed of approximately 120,700 km/h and probably disintegrated roughly 60 kilometers above ground level. The agency calculated that the energy released during the fragmentation equated to approximately 300 tons of TNT, explaining the audible booms.
Numerous individuals in various states took to social media to recount the sensation of their buildings shaking. Several videos on different platforms captured what seemed to be two rapid explosions, devoid of accompanying fire, smoke, or visible sources.
Residents filed reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, registering the tremors with the National Earthquake Information Center. Agency spokesperson Steve Sobie acknowledged the reports and mentioned the creation of an event page due to the influx of “Did you feel it?” submissions on their website. However, Sobie clarified that no seismic activity was detected on the agency’s seismographs, ruling out an earthquake as the cause of the shaking.