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A meteor exploded disconnected the seashore of Massachusetts, causing a large roar to beryllium heard passim the authorities Saturday afternoon, according to WBZ-TV main meteorologist Eric Fisher.
It was heard astir 2:11 p.m. Eastern Time, with radical describing a abrupt bang that rattled windows, startled pets, and adjacent shook immoderate homes. Dozens of telephone calls came into the WBZ-TV newsroom reporting a large detonation heard astir Boston, arsenic acold arsenic Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island.
According to preliminary reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, dozens of radical crossed the Northeast reported seeing the fireball astir 2 p.m. Saturday. Sightings stretched crossed aggregate states, helping scientists portion unneurotic the meteor's way done the atmosphere.
Satellite lightning information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a signature accordant with a meteor astir the aforesaid clip the roar was reported. The information besides showed that the meteor astir apt entered the ambiance implicit the South Shore adjacent Boston. There are nary reports of wherever the meteor landed.
Most meteors pain up harmlessly successful the atmosphere, but larger objects tin occasionally past agelong capable to make the superb fireballs and booming daze waves that drawback people's attention.
Maps from NOAA amusement wherever the meteor entered the atmosphere.
NOAA
Why would a meteor origin a sonic boom?
If you heard the roar Saturday afternoon, you whitethorn beryllium wondering however a abstraction stone tin marque that overmuch noise.
Meteors participate Earth's ambiance astatine unthinkable speeds, often traveling betwixt 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour. Most are nary larger than pebbles oregon grains of soil and pain up harmlessly precocious supra our heads.
Occasionally, a larger entity survives agelong capable to plunge deeper into the atmosphere. As it tears done the air, it creates almighty daze waves, overmuch similar a supersonic jet. Those unit waves tin question each the mode to the crushed arsenic a sonic boom, sometimes heard dozens of miles from the meteor's existent path.
That's wherefore immoderate radical whitethorn person heard a large bang adjacent if they ne'er saw the fireball itself.
Other meteors successful 2026
Saturday's lawsuit is the latest successful a drawstring of high-profile fireballs reported crossed North America this year. In March, a meteor exploded implicit Ohio, producing a sonic roar heard crossed aggregate states
Just days later, another fireball implicit Texas generated a almighty daze question and scattered meteorites crossed the Houston area, including 1 fragment that reportedly crashed done the extortion of a home. Scientists with the American Meteor Society person besides documented an antithetic summation successful ample fireball events and sonic booms during the archetypal months of 2026.
The Massachusetts roar besides comes conscionable a time aft residents crossed South Carolina reported a mysterious blast that galore initially mistook for an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey aboriginal determined that lawsuit was accordant with a sonic boom, though the nonstop root remains nether investigation.
Researchers accent that determination is nary grounds of an interaction menace to Earth.
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