Share to ClassroomBig Meteor Booms Over US Northeast
A meteor about three feet wide hit Earth's atmosphere on Saturday afternoon. It came in over the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The meteor made a loud double boom. Buildings shook across the US Northeast. The first calls came at 2:11 p.m. on May 30. People from northern New Hampshire to southern Rhode Island heard a long, rolling rumble. The American Meteor Society later said it was a fireball— a very bright meteor. Robert Lunsford from the group said it was much bigger than a normal fireball.
This kind of event is called a bolide— a meteor that explodes in the air. Weather radar showed a bright flash where there were no storms. This is a sign of a bolide. A weather satellite also saw the flash above eastern Massachusetts. But officials said only NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) can confirm it for sure. NASA usually needs to find pieces of the meteor first.
Lunsford said most meteors burn up in the air. Anything left would have landed in the Atlantic Ocean. People saw the fireball from Delaware to Montreal. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, police and fire stations got many calls. Many people thought the booms were from a factory explosion. Officials asked them to stop calling.
