Web desk(National Times)- 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 tonnes of TNT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06pm (11:06pm PKT), the US space agency\u2019s deputy news chief Jennifer Dooren told AFP in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tonnes of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meteor was travelling at 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) at an altitude of 40 miles when it broke apart, Dooren said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Area residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting they were so powerful that houses were shaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 tonnes of TNT, Nasa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The explosion blew out windows over 200 square miles (518 square kilometres), injuring more than 1,600 people, mostly due to broken glass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Web desk(National Times)- 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 tonnes of TNT. The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06pm (11:06pm PKT), the US space agency\u2019s deputy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n