A meteor roughly three feet wide [1] entered the atmosphere on Saturday, May 30, 2026, triggering a loud sonic boom across Massachusetts and the Northeast [2].
The event caused widespread alarm as the blast rattled homes and generated reports of mysterious noises across the region. Because the explosion occurred high in the atmosphere, it posed no direct threat to people on the ground, though the scale of the sound led many to mistake the event for a man-made explosion.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the noise heard Saturday afternoon was a sonic boom from a meteor [3]. While some reports described the sound as a double boom, other agencies characterized it as a single, loud event [4].
According to the American Meteor Society, the object entered the atmosphere near the Massachusetts and New Hampshire border [1]. The USGS pinpointed the origin of the boom around Newburyport, located about 35 miles northeast of Boston [5].
NASA officials provided further details on the physics of the event. A NASA spokesperson said the energy released was equal to about 300 tons of TNT [6]. The meteor was traveling at approximately 75,000 mph when it entered the atmosphere [5].
The explosion occurred when the meteor hit the denser layers of the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, causing it to disintegrate and release a massive shockwave. This energy release created the sonic boom that traveled across state lines, startling residents in multiple New England states [2].
Local authorities in the Newburyport area received numerous calls from residents reporting shaking buildings and loud crashes. The USGS and NASA said the event was a natural atmospheric phenomenon and not a seismic event or a terrestrial explosion [3].
“The energy released was equal to about 300 tons of TNT.”
This event demonstrates how small celestial objects can produce significant atmospheric effects. While a 3-foot meteor is relatively small, its hypersonic speed converts kinetic energy into a powerful shockwave upon entry. The resulting sonic boom can be mistaken for industrial accidents or explosions, highlighting the importance of rapid coordination between the USGS and NASA to prevent public panic during such natural occurrences.
