The boom caused by a 3-foot-wide meteorite that thousands heard over Massachusetts and parts of the Northeast Saturday afternoon may have landed in Cape Cod Bay, NASA said. NASA used radar from the National Weather Service, which helped to pinpoint the landing position of the meteorite in the center of the bay. The water depth in the part of the bay where the meteorite landed is only about 100 feet deep. The meteorite is magnetic, so if it did land there, someone with a powerful magnet could find it.”Conceivably, somebody with a really long rope and a really long magnet, could fish up some pieces of this, because it’s likely magnetic,” StormTeam 5 meteorologist A.J. Burnett said. Meteor vs. meteoriteAccording to NASA, the loud boom that sent many flocking to social media to report what they heard may have been a meteorite, with the difference between a meteor and meteorite depending on where it lands.When a meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere at “high speed and burns up,” it is referred to as a meteor. However, if the meteor survives the atmosphere and hits the ground, it is a meteorite, NASA said.”A meteor breaks up in the atmosphere, we never see it on Earth,” Burnett said. “A meteorite makes it to Earth’s surface.” Robert Lundsford, the fireball program monitor with the society, told the Associated Press that the group received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake, or seeing the fireball, which he said looks like a shooting star in the daytime sky. “It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide,” he said.If the skies were clear on Saturday, Lundsford said the meteorite may have been visible to those on the ground. “It may have been a bright streak, just above the horizon, most likely from your vantage point,” Lundsford said. “It would have only lasted a second or two. If you weren’t looking in the right direction, you would have missed it.” Multiple witnesses shared video of the sudden boom. All were recorded at approximately 2:11 p.m.At approximately that same time, NOAA’s GOES-19 weather satellite Geostationary Lightning Mapper showed a burst over the Massachusetts coast.Watch: Cameras across Massachusetts record loud boom at 2:11 p.m. on May 30 Sister station WCVB has reached out to state officials, the Weston Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey for more information. Video: What caused that ‘boom’ over Mass? Discussing a possible theory
The boom caused by a 3-foot-wide meteorite that thousands heard over Massachusetts and parts of the Northeast Saturday afternoon may have landed in Cape Cod Bay, NASA said.
NASA used radar from the National Weather Service, which helped to pinpoint the landing position of the meteorite in the center of the bay.
The water depth in the part of the bay where the meteorite landed is only about 100 feet deep. The meteorite is magnetic, so if it did land there, someone with a powerful magnet could find it.
“Conceivably, somebody with a really long rope and a really long magnet, could fish up some pieces of this, because it’s likely magnetic,” StormTeam 5 meteorologist A.J. Burnett said.
Meteor vs. meteorite
According to NASA, the loud boom that sent many flocking to social media to report what they heard may have been a meteorite, with the difference between a meteor and meteorite depending on where it lands.
When a meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere at “high speed and burns up,” it is referred to as a meteor. However, if the meteor survives the atmosphere and hits the ground, it is a meteorite, NASA said.
“A meteor breaks up in the atmosphere, we never see it on Earth,” Burnett said. “A meteorite makes it to Earth’s surface.”
Robert Lundsford, the fireball program monitor with the society, told the Associated Press that the group received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake, or seeing the fireball, which he said looks like a shooting star in the daytime sky.
“It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide,” he said.
If the skies were clear on Saturday, Lundsford said the meteorite may have been visible to those on the ground.
“It may have been a bright streak, just above the horizon, most likely from your vantage point,” Lundsford said. “It would have only lasted a second or two. If you weren’t looking in the right direction, you would have missed it.”
Multiple witnesses shared video of the sudden boom. All were recorded at approximately 2:11 p.m.
At approximately that same time, NOAA’s GOES-19 weather satellite Geostationary Lightning Mapper showed a burst over the Massachusetts coast.
Watch: Cameras across Massachusetts record loud boom at 2:11 p.m. on May 30
Sister station WCVB has reached out to state officials, the Weston Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey for more information.
Video: What caused that ‘boom’ over Mass? Discussing a possible theory
