NEW: NASA Confirms Loud Boom Was Fireball That Sped at Roughly 75,000 MPH and Fragmented
GoLocalProv News Team
NEW: NASA Confirms Loud Boom Was Fireball That Sped at Roughly 75,000 MPH and Fragmented
According to Allard Beutel, NASA Spokesperson, that loud noise of an explosion was a fireball.
Beutel said:
NASA can initially confirm a fireball over New England at 2:06 p.m. EDT today. Current available information puts the fireball’s speed at roughly 75,000 mph, and it appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles above extreme northeast Massachusetts/southeast New Hampshire. 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. The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 26 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms.
He updated in a second email, and stated:
"We also just received a revised energy released estimate for today’s fireball that now puts it equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT."
NASA was one of the six entities GoLocal reached out to immediately after the incident:
RI State Police, Governor's office, RIEMA, USGS, and RI Energy.