Reports of a sudden explosion reverberated across New England in the United States on Saturday afternoon, prompting law enforcement and other agencies to investigate the cause of a dual blast that rattled structures in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The American Meteor Society revealed that the loud sounds were the result of a meteor, approximately one meter wide, entering the Earth’s atmosphere near the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, north of Boston.
NASA officials confirmed that the meteor was a natural object, ruling out any connection to satellites or space debris, and pinpointed its entry into the atmosphere at 2:06 p.m.
Robert Lunsford, a program monitor at the American Meteor Society, disclosed that numerous reports were received from Delaware to Montreal, with witnesses hearing the double blast, feeling ground tremors, or spotting the fireball resembling a daytime shooting star.
Describing the meteor as larger than a typical fireball, Lunsford expressed doubts about it striking the ground, suggesting that it likely disintegrated or fell into the ocean if it survived the atmospheric entry.
According to NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel, the meteor was hurtling at a speed of approximately 120,700 km/h and probably disintegrated around 60 kilometers above the surface, releasing energy equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, causing the explosive sounds.
Numerous individuals in various states shared on social media their experiences of buildings shaking. Videos on online platforms captured the audible booms without any visible signs of fire or smoke.
Several individuals lodged reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, registering the tremors felt through the National Earthquake Information Center. However, the absence of seismic activity on the agency’s instruments indicated that the disturbance was not seismic in nature.
