Meteors are ‘extremely common.’ What makes the one over New England ‘rare’? - Northeastern University College of Science

A sonic boom shook Boston and the larger New England area with the force of 230 tons of TNT. The source came from outer space.

The Saturday afternoon event triggered shockwaves online, with thousands inquiring what could have caused houses to shake and a sound heard as far away as New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

But the reason was revealed soon after: a meteoroid about 5 feet in diameter that weighed more than 12,000 pounds blasted through Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 42,000 miles per hour, according to NASA. The meteor went 26 miles through the atmosphere before it shattered — the reason for the sound — into meteorites that fell into Cape Cod Bay.

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