US Homes Shake as Meteor Explodes With Force of 300 Tons of TNT

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

The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 pm (18:06 GMT), 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."

The flash density product really shows this anomalous "flash" which is pretty distinctive of a bolide/meteor reentry. east of Boston. This is the likely source of the loud boom/explosion. pic.twitter.com/ka5b9KfiQ7

— Nick Stewart (@NStewWX) May 30, 2026

The meteor was traveling at 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) 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 tail of a meteor that streaked across the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. (Alex Alishevskikh/Wikimedia Commons)

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

Related: Watch: Fireball Captured on Video Streaking Over The US

The explosion blew out windows over 200 square miles (518 square kilometers), injuring more than 1,600 people, mostly due to broken glass.

© Agence France-Presse