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A meteor travelling toward Earth exploded over the US on Saturday, triggering loud booms that echoed over the northeastern region with a blast of the size of 300 tonnes of TNT.
NASA's deputy news chief, Jenifer Dooren, revealed that the meteor broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire after 2 p.m.
"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 meteor was travelling at 75,000 miles per hour (over 120,000 km/h) at an altitude of 40 miles when it exploded.
Authorities received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people hearing the boom, experiencing shaking ground or seeing the fireball.
The United States Geological Survey said that the event is a "widely felt sonic boom from a suspected bolide".
"Unlike earthquakes, which occur at discrete location in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere," it said.
Residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting that houses were shaking after the blast.
