Meteor explodes over northeastern US with blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT

Boston, Massachusetts - A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern US on Saturday, NASA said, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT.

This satellite image handout from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taken on May 30, 2026, shows a meteor exploding in the atmosphere over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. © HANDOUT / VARIOUS SOURCES / AFP

The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 PM, the US space agency's deputy news chief Jennifer Dooren told AFP in a statement.

"This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," she said.

"The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms."

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The meteor was traveling at 75,000 mph at an altitude of 40 miles when it broke apart, Dooren said.

Area residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting they were so powerful that houses were shaking.

In 2013 a fireball streaked above Chelyabinsk, Russia. The house-sized space rock blew apart 14 miles above the ground, releasing a blast equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT, NASA said.

The explosion blew out windows over 200 square miles, injuring more than 1,600 people, mostly due to broken glass.