A bright fireball streaked across parts of New England on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by a loud boom, after a meteor broke apart high in the atmosphere. NASA confirmed the event using satellite imagery.
The event occurred at about 2:06 p.m. EDT and was detected by eyewitnesses and NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, NASA said.
The meteor fragmented at an altitude of roughly 40 miles (64 km) over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire.
NASA estimated the energy released at breakup was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, accounting for the loud noise reported across the region.
Meteors travel faster than the speed of sound, creating pressure waves as they burn and break apart in the atmosphere, which can produce a loud sonic boom heard on the ground.
