On Saturday afternoon, residents across parts of New England and beyond reported hearing loud booms and feeling buildings shake, prompting questions from local police agencies and the public about the source of the disturbance. According to the American Meteor Society, the likely cause was a meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border, north of Boston.
The reports came in around 2:30 p.m. and described what many witnesses characterized as a double boom. Some people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island said the sound was strong enough to rattle structures. Others posted videos on X that captured two quick explosive sounds, though the recordings did not show smoke, fire, or any obvious ground-based cause.
Robert Lunsford, the Fireball Program Monitor for the American Meteor Society, said the organization received dozens of reports from locations stretching from Delaware to Montreal. Witnesses described hearing the booms, feeling shaking, or seeing a bright fireball in the daytime sky. Lunsford said the object was larger than a typical fireball, estimating it at about a yard, or three feet, wide.
The meteor society said the event was consistent with a meteor breaking into the atmosphere at high speed. Such events can produce sonic booms, especially when they occur close enough to populated areas or under conditions that allow sound to travel widely.
Lunsford said it is unlikely that the meteor reached the ground. He noted that determining that with certainty would require more information about the object’s trajectory, speed, and other characteristics. If any fragments survived, he said, they most likely would have landed in the ocean. Most meteors of this kind burn up before impact.
For now, the society’s explanation appears to account for the widespread reports of sound, shaking, and brief visual sightings across the region. Authorities reported no immediate damage linked to it.