Loud boom near Boston may have been an exploding meteor
The incident occurred in southern New England on Saturday afternoon
A loud boom rattled homes and nerves across southern New England on Saturday afternoon.
Social media lit up with reports of a loud, jarring noise across eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island and New Hampshire just after 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.
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No thunderstorms or ground-based explosions were reported at the time. The most likely cause is a bolide or fireball, which is a meteor that explodes as it crashes into Earth’s thick atmosphere.
Lightning sensors aboard NOAA'S GOES-East satellite detected an unusually large flash over eastern Massachusetts around the time residents began reporting the boom; the two pieces of evidence combined are consistent with a meteor exploding in Earth's upper atmosphere.
Bolides are a relatively common sight around the world as they produce a large flash of light and a visible streak left behind as the meteor disintegrates.
Large booms sometimes accompany bolides. The pressure wave from a large meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, caused significant damage throughout the city in February 2013.