“It could be a meteorite that exploded in the air.”

The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed that the mysterious noise heard across Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon, and which sparked great curiosity, was a sonic boom from a meteorite.

“This event is a widely felt sonic boom from a suspected explosive explosion,” the USGS wrote in an alert. “Unlike earthquakes, which occur at a discrete location in the Earth, sonic blast events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere.”

The noise, which sounded like a tree falling to the ground or a big boom of thunder, became the talk of the day on a cold, rainy Saturday in late May. The boom occurred at approximately 2:05 p.m., according to the USGS.

The American Meteor Society said the explosion came from a meteorite about 3 feet wide that entered the atmosphere around New Hampshire’s border with Massachusetts north of Boston.

Robert Lunsford, the community’s Fireball program monitor, said the group has received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal where people heard a double boom, felt the ground shake, or saw a fireball, which he said looked like a shooting star in the sky during the day.

“It was definitely larger than a regular fireball, about a yard wide,” he said.

But Lunsford said it was unlikely the meteorite would hit Earth.

“We will need more information about the trajectory, speed and other aspects to know for sure whether it hit the ground, but if it had not burned up, it would have fallen into the ocean,” he said. “Most of it burns up before it reaches the ground.”

USGS map showing the impact of Saturday’s sonic boom from a meteorite in Massachusetts. (Courtesy of USGS)

NASA also confirmed the meteor’s explosion on Saturday evening, saying it “appears to have split about 40 miles over northeastern MA and southeastern NH.”

“The energy released upon disintegration is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which explains the loud noise,” NASA said on social media.

The USGS says Saturday’s event was rare, as “most of the sonic booms were not felt on the ground.” Some people on social media reported feeling their home shake momentarily, sparking speculation about whether it was an earthquake.

Skywarn Amateur Radio of Southern New England noted in a social media post that the USGS did not report an earthquake.

The volunteer storm monitoring network, which operates out of the National Weather Service’s Boston office in Norton, added that it had collected “numerous reports of a ‘big bang’ with shaking felt at ground level” across the interior of Massachusetts, from Franklin to north-central Rhode Island.

“This may be a meteorite that exploded in the air with a streak of light observed in social media posts,” SNE amateur radio Skywarn on X posted at 2:40 p.m.

Nick Stewart, an award-winning spaceflight meteorologist, reported that early analyzes showed the noise was caused by a “fairly large meteor/meteor entering the atmosphere.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s lightning satellite “does not associate” the “very large flash… with active thunderstorms,” ​​Stewart said.

“The flash intensity product shows this anomalous ‘flashing’ that is so characteristic of a meteor/meteorite return east of Boston,” Stewart added. “This is the likely source of the loud bang/explosion.”

Eric Fisher, WBZ Channel 4’s chief meteorologist, responded to Stewart’s post by saying, “There you go guys. Surely a meteorite caused that big explosion!”

There have been reports from Rhode Island, the North Shore, Greater Boston, and even southern New Hampshire about the mysterious noise.

“There are a lot of reports of a huge explosion in eastern Massachusetts/Cambridge/Boston and other areas,” one social media post said. “No one seems to know what it is?”

Reports of the surge and “earth tremors” flooded public safety departments across eastern Massachusetts, the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security said in a social media post at about 3:45 p.m.

“Although we do not yet know the cause, there are no known emergency police or fire calls associated with these reports and we do not believe there is any threat to public safety,” the office stated. “We remain in touch with our local, state and federal partners to monitor any impact and understand the cause as it becomes available.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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