A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon, producing a boom loud enough to rattle windows and shake homes across the state, according to WBZ-TV chief meteorologist Eric Fisher.
The blast was reported at about 2:11 p.m. Eastern, with residents describing a sudden bang that startled pets and shook houses. WBZ-TV said dozens of calls flooded its newsroom reporting an explosion heard around Boston and as far away as Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Johnston, Rhode Island.
The event was no isolated local sighting.
According to preliminary reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, dozens of people across the Northeast reported seeing a fireball around 2 p.m. Saturday, with sightings spanning several states, observations that help scientists reconstruct the object’s path through the atmosphere. Satellite lightning data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a signature consistent with a meteor at roughly the same time, and indicated the object likely entered the atmosphere over the South Shore near Boston, WBZ-TV reported.
NASA offered a more precise account of where and how the meteor came apart. “The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeast MA and southeast NH,” the agency said in a statement. “The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud noise.”
Why does a meteor make that much noise?
Most meteors are no larger than pebbles or grains of sand and burn up harmlessly high in the atmosphere.
The ones that make headlines are the rare survivors. Meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere at tremendous speeds — often between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour — and when a larger object plunges deep enough, it tears through the air and generates powerful shock waves, much like a supersonic jet. Those pressure waves can reach the ground as a sonic boom heard dozens of miles from the meteor’s actual track.
Shauna Edson, who works in astronomy education for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, explained the sound to WBZ-TV. “What you hear is the air compression of it moving really fast, creating those pressure waves, and occasionally, sometimes you’re also hearing the stone itself break apart from the forces that it’s going through,” she said.
The U.S. Geological Survey noted a key difference between these events and earthquakes, stating that “unlike earthquakes, which occur at discrete locations in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere.”
Where did it land?
If the meteor came down off the coast, recovering any pieces is unlikely, Edson said, noting that the vast majority of meteorites land in the ocean because most of the planet is covered in water. Even without fragments, she said, eyewitness accounts and video can tell scientists a great deal.
“How bright it was, how fast it was moving, the angle it was coming from, and how long it stayed bright for, that gives us a lot of information,” Edson said. “Maybe it’s part of a broken-off piece of a lone asteroid. Maybe it’s just one of these smaller space things that’s been floating around that we don’t associate with something we know the name of.”
She described meteors as irreplaceable records of the solar system. “Meteors are the time capsules that carry information, so when we find pieces of them, each one is a treasure trove of information about the solar system,” she said.
Has anyone ever been hit?
The odds of a meteorite striking a person are vanishingly small. WBZ-TV reported only one documented case of a direct hit: in 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama, a woman identified as Ann Hodges was struck on the thigh after a space rock crashed through her roof and bounced off her radio. She survived with bruising.
Edson urged perspective. “We as humans are a very, very tiny part of a very big planet,” she said. “There’s not much you can do about it if it is going to happen, so live your life.”
A busy year for fireballs
Saturday’s event was the latest in a series of high-profile fireballs across North America in 2026. In March, a meteor exploded over Ohio, producing a sonic boom heard across several states. Days later, a fireball over Texas generated a shock wave and scattered meteorites around the Houston area, including a fragment that reportedly crashed through a home’s roof. WBZ-TV reported that the American Meteor Society has documented an unusual rise in large fireball events and sonic booms during the early months of 2026.
The Massachusetts boom also came a day after residents across South Carolina reported a mysterious blast many first mistook for an earthquake; the USGS later determined it was consistent with a sonic boom, though the source remains under investigation.
Researchers stress there is no evidence of any impact or threat to Earth.
Source: WBZ-TV / CBS Boston
This article was originally written in English. The French and Haitian Creole versions were produced using AI translation software; errors may occur, and the English version is authoritative.
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