Meteor explodes off coast of Massachusetts, inflicting loud increase

A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, inflicting a loud increase that may very well be heard all through the state Saturday afternoon, based on WBZ-TV chief meteorologist Eric Fisher. NASA mentioned the vitality launched when the meteor broke up was equal to about 300 tons of TNT.

It was heard round 2:11 p.m. Eastern Time, with individuals describing a sudden bang that rattled home windows, startled pets, and even shook some houses. Dozens of cellphone calls got here into the WBZ-TV newsroom reporting a loud explosion heard round Boston, so far as Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island.

According to preliminary studies submitted to the American Meteor Society, dozens of individuals throughout the Northeast reported seeing the fireball round 2 p.m. Saturday. Sightings stretched throughout a number of states, serving to scientists piece collectively the meteor’s path via the environment.  

Satellite lightning knowledge from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed a signature according to a meteor across the similar time the increase was reported. The knowledge additionally confirmed that the meteor most likely entered the environment over the South Shore close to Boston. 

“The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeast MA and southeast NH. The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud noise,” NASA mentioned in a press release. 

Most meteors expend harmlessly within the environment, however bigger objects can often survive lengthy sufficient to create the good fireballs and booming shock waves that seize individuals’s consideration.  

Why would a meteor trigger a sonic increase?  

If you heard the increase Saturday afternoon, you might be questioning how an area rock could make that a lot noise.

Meteors enter Earth’s environment at unbelievable speeds, typically touring between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour. Most aren’t any bigger than pebbles or grains of sand and expend harmlessly excessive above our heads.

Occasionally, a bigger object survives lengthy sufficient to plunge deeper into the environment. As it tears via the air, it creates highly effective shock waves, very similar to a supersonic jet. Those strain waves can journey all the way in which to the bottom as a sonic increase, typically heard dozens of miles from the meteor’s precise path.

“What you hear is the air compression of it moving really fast, creating those pressure waves, and occasionally sometimes you’re also hearing the stone itself break apart from the forces that it’s going through,” Shauna Edson, an astronomy educator for the Smithsonian National Space and Air Museum, informed WBZ-TV.

The U.S. Geological Survey defined that “unlike earthquakes which occur at discrete location in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere.”  

Where did the meteorite land? 

NASA later said, “This was a daytime bolide that produced a meteorite fall right in the middle of Cape Cod Bay.” The water depth on the space of the autumn website is 34 meters, based on NASA. 

NASA mentioned the autumn into water is technically referred to as a “fishy squisher.”  

Edson mentioned that if it landed off the coast of Massachusetts, it might be unlikely that any items of it might be discovered. She mentioned that the overwhelming majority of meteorites land within the ocean as a result of Earth is generally water.

But eyewitness accounts and video of the fireball will help scientists decide lots of details about the meteorite if they’re unable to search out items of it. 

“How bright it was, how fast it was moving, the angle it was coming from, and how long it stayed bright for, that gives us a lot of information,” Edson mentioned. “Maybe it’s part of a broken-off piece of a lone asteroid. Maybe it’s just one of these smaller space things that’s been floating around that we don’t associate with something we know the name of.”

She mentioned that meteors are important in figuring out many of the info that people have about house.

“Meteors are the time capsules that carry information, so when we find pieces of them, each one is a treasure trove of information about the solar system,” she mentioned. “There are a few places on the moon where we have gotten moon rocks, but everything else kind of gets delivered to us by nature and we don’t know where they come from.”

Has anybody ever been hit by a meteorite?

There is just one documented case of an individual being immediately hit by a meteorite. It occurred in 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama. The girl, recognized as Ann Hodges, was mendacity on her sofa when the house rock got here via her roof, bounced off her radio and hit her within the thigh. Hodges was OK, solely receiving some main bruising on her hip. 

Edson mentioned it’s statistically unlikely {that a} meteorite would hit an individual.

“We as humans are very, very tiny part of a very big planet,” she mentioned. “There’s not much you can do about it if it is going to happen, so live your life.”

Other meteors in 2026

Saturday’s occasion is the most recent in a string of high-profile fireballs reported throughout North America this 12 months. In March, a meteor exploded over Ohio, producing a sonic increase heard throughout a number of states  

Just days later, one other fireball over Texas generated a robust shock wave and scattered meteorites throughout the Houston space, together with one fragment that reportedly crashed via the roof of a house. Scientists with the American Meteor Society have additionally documented an uncommon enhance in massive fireball occasions and sonic booms in the course of the first months of 2026.

The Massachusetts increase additionally comes only a day after residents throughout South Carolina reported a mysterious blast that many initially mistook for an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey later decided that occasion was according to a sonic increase, though the precise supply stays beneath investigation.  

Researchers stress that there isn’t any proof of an affect risk to Earth.