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On Saturday, May 30, a meteor exploded over the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
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Residents reported a loud explosion and tremors as the meteor broke into fragments 40 miles above the Earth's surface.
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NASA's Jennifer Durin said the bolide was a natural object and not related to meteor showers or space debris entering the atmosphere.
A meteorite has rocked the northeastern United States.
According to CBS News, ABC News and Reuters, the fireball was spotted over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at approximately 2:06 p.m. local time on Saturday, May 30.
The meteorite pierced the Earth's atmosphere at 75,000 miles per hour, causing an explosion equivalent to 300 tons of TNT, media reported, citing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
A NASA Space Alerts post on X states: "Eyewitnesses in New England and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-19 satellite reported a bright fireball Saturday... accompanied by a loud noise. The meteor apparently disintegrated at an altitude of 40 miles over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. The energy released during the disintegration is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which would explain the loud noise.".
On May 30, a meteor headed toward Earth exploded high over the northeastern United States. Source: NOAA Satellite and Information Service.
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According to satellite lightning data, the meteor entered the atmosphere over the South Coast near Boston and then spread across several areas, even reaching Rhode Island, CBS News reports.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Safety received several reports from residents of a fireball accompanied by an "audible explosion and ground shaking," ABC News reports. Watertown police also reported on Facebook that they had received "numerous reports from residents of a loud explosion" in eastern Massachusetts.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) described the bolide as a suspected bolide—a bright meteor that exploded in the atmosphere.
«"Unlike earthquakes, which occur at specific points on Earth, sonic booms occur along a linear trajectory through the atmosphere," the USGS stated. "Therefore, the location reported is approximate. Although earthquake magnitudes are recorded by seismic sensors, traditional earthquake magnitude metrics are not suitable for measuring atmospheric phenomena. Magnitudes are not assigned.".
NASA logo (Image from photobank) Photo: STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty
As reported by the British news outlet The Guardian According to NASA's Jennifer Durin, the bolide was a natural object, not associated with any active meteor shower, and was not the result of space debris or a satellite entering the atmosphere.
«"You hear the sound of air compression created by the rock moving very quickly, creating these shock waves, and sometimes, sometimes, you also hear the rock itself cracking under those forces," Shauna Edson, an astronomy professor at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, told CBS affiliate WBZ-TV.
«"How bright it was, how fast it was moving, what angle it was approaching, and how long it stayed bright—all of that tells us a lot," Edson continued. "It could be part of a broken-off piece from a single asteroid. Or it could just be one of those little space objects floating around in space that we don't associate with anything we know the name of.".
PEOPLE has reached out to NASA for comment.
Read the original article on People.