'Equivalent to 300 tons of TNT': Meteor 'explosion' over northeast US rattles residents

Residents across parts of Massachusetts and neighbouring New England states reported hearing a loud boom and feeling buildings shake on Saturday afternoon, sparking widespread speculation about the cause.People from multiple areas across the state, on social media, said they heard what sounded like an explosion shortly after 2 pm (local time) and felt vibrations strong enough to rattle homes and alarm pets.People from areas including Melrose, Wellesley and Newtonville shared similar accounts with the broadcaster. Some initially believed a tree had struck their house or that a transformer had exploded, while others said the noise was far louder than anything they had previously experienced.As reports spread across social media, authorities and emergency agencies sought to determine the source of the disturbance. Several videos posted online appeared to capture two rapid booms, though no fire, smoke or other obvious cause was visible.The mystery was later addressed by the American Meteor Society, which said the sounds were likely caused by a meteor roughly three feet wide entering Earth's atmosphere near the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, north of Boston, as reported by Associated Press.Robert Lunsford, the society's Fireball Program Monitor, said the organisation received dozens of reports from locations stretching from Delaware to Montreal, with witnesses reporting a loud double boom, shaking ground or sightings of a bright fireball in the daytime sky."It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide," Lunsford said. However, he said it was unlikely that the object struck the ground."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 added. "Most of them do burn up before they hit the ground."Later, Nasa confirmed that the loud boom was caused by a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere over the northeastern United States. According to the US space agency, the fireball broke apart over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at around 2:06 pm local time, generating a shockwave powerful enough to be heard across the region.Jennifer Dooren, NASA's deputy news chief, in a statement to AFP, said, "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."The agency official explained that the meteor was travelling at about 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) at an altitude of 40 miles when it disintegrated. It estimated that the energy released during the breakup was equivalent to around 300 tons of TNT, helping explain the loud booms reported across the region. "The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms," Dooren said.