Overview
- Witnesses across eastern New England reported a loud double boom on Saturday, May 30, and NOAA’s GOES-19 Geostationary Lightning Mapper recorded a bright anomalous flash over Massachusetts Bay at the same time.
- NASA says the object traveled at roughly 75,000 mph, fragmented about 40 miles above the region, and released energy estimated at roughly 300 tons of TNT during breakup.
- The U.S. Geological Survey described the event as a widely felt sonic boom from a suspected bolide and local and state agencies reported no injuries or structural damage while emergency lines were briefly inundated with calls.
- The American Meteor Society estimated the space rock was about 3 feet wide and said it likely burned up in the atmosphere with any surviving material probably falling into the ocean and unlikely to be recovered.
- Bolides can produce daytime fireballs and strong pressure waves that sound like explosions, and satellite flash-mapping plus seismic and eyewitness reports are used to distinguish these atmospheric events from earthquakes or manmade blasts.