Mysterious Boom Heard Across MA Was An Exploding Meteor, Experts Say

Mysterious booms rattled residents and law enforcement agencies across Massachusetts on Saturday, and experts are attributing the noise to an exploding meteor, according to reports.

The booms were heard around 2:11 p.m. ET, with people describing a sudden bang that rattled windows and even shook some homes, CBS Boston reported. Residents as far as Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island, described it as sounding like a "loud explosion."

The American Meteor Society said that the booms heard were actually caused by a meteor about 3 feet wide entering the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston.

Robert Lunsford, the Fireball Program Monitor with the society, told The Associated Press the group received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal, with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake or seeing the fireball, which he said looks like a shooting star in the daytime sky.

“It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide,” he said.

But Lunsford said it's unlikely the meteor struck the ground.

“We would need more information about the trajectory, the speed and other aspects to know for sure if it hit the ground, but if it didn't burn up, then it would have landed in the ocean,” he said. “Most of them do burn up before they hit the ground.”

Meteorologist Nick Stewart shared satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, showing where the meteor entered the atmosphere.

"The flash density product really shows this anomalous 'flash' which is pretty distinctive of a bolide/meteor reentry. East of Boston. This is the likely source of the loud boom/explosion," Stewart wrote.

Reports from people in several states poured in on social media following the event.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security also said it received reports of booms and “ground tremors” across the state.

“Although we do not yet know the cause, there are no known emergency police or fire requests connected to these reports and we do not believe there is any public safety threat,” the office said in a statement. “We remain in contact with our local, state, and federal partners to monitor any impact and understand the cause when it becomes available.”

Several people also filed reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, registering the shaking they felt with the National Earthquake Information Center, agency spokesman Steve Sobie told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The agency opened an event page based on the number of “Did you feel it?" reports it received on its website. But he said there was no event registered on the agency's seismographs. meaning the shaking was not due to an earthquake.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.