A large meteor streaked through the sky of Massachusetts, US, on Saturday and exploded with the energy of roughly 300 tonnes of TNT, according to NASA and other monitoring data. The space rock, roughly around 3 metres wide, entered Earth's atmosphere at high speed, heating up and glowing brightly. When it exploded, it released an intense flash of light and set off booms that echoed across the region. Users, especially those who live in Boston, flooded the social media platforms with reports of the explosion. Some users even claimed that the sound was so powerful that houses were shaking.
Scientists track these events using sensors designed to detect atmospheric explosions. Though it occurred miles above the ground, there was no impact damage. Most meteors burn up completely before reaching the surface. When one of these sizes explodes, it creates a loud boom and a fireball, often mistaken for lightning by people on the ground.
"This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," Jennifer Dooren, who is the US space agency's deputy news chief, told news agency in AFP in a statement. "The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms."
According to Dooren, the meteor was travelling at 75,000 miles per hour (more than 120,000 km/h) at an altitude of 40 miles when it exploded.
According to the American Meteor Society, the booms heard at about 2:30 pm (local time) were actually caused by a meteor. As quoted by CNN, fire programme monitor Robert Lunsford that the they received dozens similar of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom,
"It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide," he said as quoted. "We would need more information about the trajectory the speed and other aspects to know for sure if it hit the ground, but if it didn't burn up, then it would have landed in the ocean," he said. "Most of them do burn up before they hit the ground."
Nick Stewart, who is a spaceflight meteorologist, wrote on X, "Reports of an explosion hears around Boston I believe are going to be a rather significant bolide/meteor entering the atmosphere. Very large 'flash' detected by GOES-19 GLM that does not correlate with active thunderstorms."
In a follow-up post, he added, "The flash density product really shows this anomalous 'flash' which is pretty distinctive of a bolide/meteor reentry. east of Boston. This is the likely source of the loud boom/explosion."
In a post on X, NASA Space Alerts wrote, "Eyewitnesses in New England and @NOAA's GOES-19 satellite reported a bright fireball on Saturday, May 30, at 2:06 p.m EDT accompanied by a loud noise."
"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," it added.
According to the United States Geological Survey, it was a "widely felt sonic boom from a suspected bolide". "Unlike earthquakes which occur at discrete location in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere," it added.
Source: NDTV
