Meteor explodes off coast of Massachusetts, causing loud boom

A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, causing a loud boom to be heard throughout the state Saturday afternoon, according to WBZ-TV chief meteorologist Eric Fisher. 

It was heard around 2:11 p.m. Eastern Time, with people describing a sudden bang that rattled windows, startled pets, and even shook some homes. Dozens of phone calls came into the WBZ-TV newsroom reporting a loud explosion heard around Boston, as far as Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island.

According to preliminary reports submitted to the American Meteor Society, dozens of people across the Northeast reported seeing the fireball around 2 p.m. Saturday. Sightings stretched across multiple states, helping scientists piece together the meteor's path through the atmosphere.  

Satellite lightning data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a signature consistent with a meteor around the same time the boom was reported. The data also showed that the meteor probably entered the atmosphere over the South Shore near Boston. 

"The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeast MA and southeast NH. The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud noise," NASA said in a statement. 

Most meteors burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere, but larger objects can occasionally survive long enough to create the brilliant fireballs and booming shock waves that grab people's attention.  

Why would a meteor cause a sonic boom?  

If you heard the boom Saturday afternoon, you may be wondering how a space rock can make that much noise.

Meteors enter Earth's atmosphere at incredible speeds, often traveling between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour. Most are no larger than pebbles or grains of sand and burn up harmlessly high above our heads.

Occasionally, a larger object survives long enough to plunge deeper into the atmosphere. As it tears through the air, it creates powerful shock waves, much like a supersonic jet. Those pressure waves can travel all the way to the ground as a sonic boom, sometimes heard dozens of miles from the meteor's actual path.

"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," astronomy education for the Smithsonian National Space and Air Museum, Shauna Edson, told WBZ-TV.

The United States Geological Survey explained that "unlike earthquakes which occur at discrete location in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere."  

Where did the meteor land? 

Edson said that if the meteor landed off the coast of Massachusetts, it would be unlikely that any pieces of it would be found. She said that the vast majority of meteorites land in the ocean because Earth is mostly water.

But eyewitness accounts and video of the fireball can help scientists determine a lot of information about the meteor if they are unable to find pieces of it. 

"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 said that meteors are essential in determining most of the information that humans have about space.

"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. "There are a few places on the moon where we have gotten moon rocks, but everything else kind of gets delivered to us by nature and we don't know where they come from."

Has anyone ever been hit by a meteorite?

There is only one documented case of a person being directly hit by a meteor. It happened in 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama. The woman, identified as Ann Hodges, was lying on her couch when the space rock came through her roof, bounced off her radio and hit her in the thigh. Hodges was OK, only receiving some major bruising on her hip. 

Edson said it is statistically unlikely that a meteor would hit a person.

"We as humans are 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."

Other meteors in 2026

Saturday's event is the latest in a string of high-profile fireballs reported across North America this year. In March, a meteor exploded over Ohio, producing a sonic boom heard across multiple states  

Just days later, another fireball over Texas generated a powerful shock wave and scattered meteorites across the Houston area, including one fragment that reportedly crashed through the roof of a home. Scientists with the American Meteor Society have also documented an unusual increase in large fireball events and sonic booms during the first months of 2026.

The Massachusetts boom also comes just a day after residents across South Carolina reported a mysterious blast that many initially mistook for an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey later determined that event was consistent with a sonic boom, although the exact source remains under investigation.  

Researchers stress that there is no evidence of an impact threat to Earth.