NOAA
When it disintegrated, at an altitude of 65 km, the meteor was traveling at more than 120 thousand km/h. The energy released was equivalent to around 300 tons of TNT.
A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, USA, causing a loud bang which could be heard, this Saturday afternoon, throughout the North American state.
The bang was heard around 2:11 pm Eastern Time, with several people describing a sudden boom that made windows shake, scared animals pet and even shook some houses, he said. Eric Fisher, chief meteorologist at WBZ-TV, in an Instagram post.
According to NASA, the energy released when the meteor disintegrated was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT.
“The fireball disintegrated over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire shortly after 2 p.m.,” he said. Jennifer Doorendeputy director of information at the North American space agency, in a statement sent to AFP.
“The meteor traveled more than 120,000 km/hat an altitude of 65 km when it disintegrated”, added the NASA chief.
The WBZ-TV newsroom received dozens of calls reporting a strong explosion heard in Boston area, and as far as Ipswich and Johnston, in the state of Rhode Island.
According to preliminary reports sent to , dozens of people across the Northeast US said have seen the fireball. The sightings extended over multiple stateshelping scientists reconstruct the meteor’s trajectory through the atmosphere.
NOAA satellite lightning detection data showed a signal compatible with a meteor at approximately the same time the bang was reported. The data also indicated that the meteor likely entered the atmosphere over the South Shore, near Boston.
A Most meteors burn without causing damage in the atmospherenote a , but larger objects can sometimes resist long enough to produce the bright fireballs and thunderous shockwaves that catch people’s attention.
Meteors enter the Earth’s atmosphere at impressive speedsoften between 40 thousand and 257 thousand kilometers per hour. Most are no larger than pebbles or grains of sand and burns safely at high altitudefar above our heads.
Occasionally, a larger object holds out long enough to dive deeper into the atmosphere. When crossing the air at great speed, it creates strong shock waves, similar in shape to a supersonic plane. These pressure waves can reach the ground in the form of a sonic boomsometimes heard tens of kilometers from the meteor’s actual trajectory.
“What you hear is the compression of air caused by it moving very quickly, creating these pressure waves, and sometimes you also hear the rock itself breaking due to the forces it’s subjected to,” he said. Shauna Edsonastrónoma no Smithsonian National Space and Air Museum, à WBZ-TV.
According to the US Geological Survey, unlike earthquakes, which occur in a specific location on Earth, sonic booms occur along a linear trajectory in the atmosphere
“Meteors are time capsules that carry information, so when we find fragments, each one is a treasure trove of information about the solar system”, explained Shauna Edson. “There are some places on the Moon where we have obtained lunar rocks, but everything else comes to us, in a way, delivered by nature, and we don’t know where it comes from”.
