A meteorite explodes off the coast of Massachusetts, causing a loud bang

A meteorite exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, causing a loud boom that could be heard across the state Saturday afternoon, according to WBZ-TV chief meteorologist Eric Fisher. NASA said the energy released when the meteorite exploded was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT.

The explosion was heard at around 2:11 p.m. ET, with people describing a sudden explosion that shook windows, startled pets, and even shook some homes. Dozens of phone calls came into the WBZ-TV newsroom reporting a loud explosion heard throughout Boston, as far away as Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island.

According to initial reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, dozens of people across the Northeast reported seeing a fireball around 2 p.m. Saturday. The sightings extended across multiple states, helping scientists understand the meteorite’s path through the atmosphere.

Satellite lightning data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a signature consistent with the presence of a meteorite around the same time the explosion was reported. The data also showed that the meteorite may have entered the atmosphere above South Beach near Boston.

“The meteorite appears to have split about 40 miles above northeast MA and southeast NH. The energy released during the breakup is estimated to be about 300 tons of TNT, which explains the loud noise,” NASA said in a statement.

Most meteorites burn up in the atmosphere without causing any harm, but larger objects can sometimes survive long enough to create spectacular fireballs and booming shock waves that attract people’s attention.

NOAA maps show where the meteorite enters the atmosphere. NOAA Why does a meteorite cause a sonic boom?

If you heard a bang on Saturday afternoon, you might be wondering how a space rock could make so much noise.

Meteorites enter Earth’s atmosphere at incredible speeds, often traveling between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour. Most of them are no larger than pebbles or grains of sand, and they burn harmlessly high above our heads.

Sometimes a larger object sticks around long enough to dive deep into the atmosphere. As they tear through the air, they create powerful shock waves, much like a supersonic jet. These pressure waves can be transmitted to Earth as a sonic boom, sometimes heard tens of miles away from the meteorite’s actual path.

“What you hear is the pressure of the air from it moving so fast, creating these pressure waves, and sometimes you also hear the stone itself coming apart from the forces that it’s going through,” Shawna Edson, an astronomy educator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, told WBZ-TV.

“Unlike earthquakes that occur in discrete places on Earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere,” the USGS explained.

Where did the meteorite fall?

Edson said that if the meteorite fell off the coast of Massachusetts, it is unlikely that any pieces of it would be found. She said the vast majority of meteorites land in the ocean because Earth is mostly made of water.

But eyewitness accounts and videos of the fireball can help scientists determine a lot of information about the meteorite if they can’t find pieces of it.

“How bright it is, how fast it is moving, the angle it is coming from, and how long it has been bright gives us a lot of information,” Edson said. “Maybe it’s part of a broken piece of a lone asteroid. Maybe it’s just one of these little alien things that have been floating around that we don’t associate with something we know the name of.”

She said that meteorites are essential in determining most of the information that humans have about space.

“Meteorites are time capsules that carry information, so when we find fragments of them, each one represents a treasure trove of information about the solar system,” she said. “There are a few places on the Moon where we’ve gotten moon rocks, but everything else is handed down to us by nature and we don’t know where they came from.”

Has anyone ever been hit by a meteorite?

There is only one documented case of a person being directly hit by a meteorite. It happened in 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama. The woman, named Ann Hodges, was lying on her sofa when a space rock penetrated the surface, ricocheted off her radio and hit her in the thigh. Hodges was fine, only receiving some large bruises on her hip.

Edson said it’s statistically unlikely that a meteor would hit someone.

“We as humans are a very, very small part of a very large planet,” she said. “There’s not much you can do about it if that happens, so live your life.”

Other meteorites in 2026

Saturday’s event is the latest in a series of high-profile fireballs reported across North America this year. In March, a meteor exploded over Ohio, creating a sonic boom that was heard in multiple states

Just days later, another fireball over Texas generated a powerful shock wave and scattered meteorites across the Houston area, including a fragment that reportedly crashed through the roof of a house. Scientists at the American Meteor Society also documented an unusual increase in large fireball events and sonic explosions during the first months of 2026.

The Massachusetts surge also comes just one day after residents across South Carolina reported a mysterious explosion that many initially thought was an earthquake. The USGS later determined that the event was consistent with a sonic boom, although the exact source remains under investigation.

Researchers confirm that there is no evidence of a threat of collision with Earth.

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