NASA has confirmed that a meteor on a collision course with Earth has exploded over the northeastern United States, causing loud booms heard across the region. The phenomenon was recorded yesterday, Saturday 30 May, at 2pm local time (8pm in Italy), over north-eastern Massachusetts and south-eastern New Hampshire, generating an explosion estimated to be equivalent to around 300 tonnes of TNT.
The meteor in the USA
According to the US space agency, when it disintegrated the celestial body was traveling at around 120 thousand kilometers per hour at an altitude of around 64 kilometres. “This fireball was not associated with any active meteor shower – explained NASA deputy press officer Jennifer Dooren -, but it was a natural object and not a reentry of space debris or a satellite”.
The energy released at the moment of fragmentation was enough to produce strong shock waves, reported on social media by residents who reported their homes shaking by the explosion. The event was also recorded by the USGS (United States Geological Survey) which defined it as “a widely felt sonic boom”.
The previous one
In 2013 a fireball crossed the skies of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The asteroid, the size of a house, exploded 22 kilometers up, releasing a shock wave equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT, according to NASA. The explosion had shattered glass in an area of more than 518 square kilometers, injuring more than 1,600 people, mainly from glass fragments.