An celestial object on a collision course with our planet detonated over the northeastern United States on Saturday, as confirmed by NASA, generating powerful concussions felt across the region with an explosive force comparable to 300 tons of TNT.

The incandescent phenomenon disintegrated over the area spanning northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 PM (18:06 GMT), according to a statement provided by Jennifer Dooren, deputy news chief for the US space agency.

“This brilliant atmospheric event was not linked to any currently active meteor showers. Rather, it was a naturally occurring cosmic body and not a piece of orbital debris or a defunct satellite returning to Earth,” she clarified.

“The energetic release during its fragmentation is estimated to be roughly equivalent to 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the pronounced auditory phenomena observed.”

The approaching meteor was traversing at a velocity of 75,000 miles per hour (exceeding 120,000 kilometers per hour) at an approximate altitude of 40 miles when its structural integrity failed, Dooren reported.

Inhabitants of the affected zones experienced alarm due to the sudden, intense sonic waves, with numerous individuals on social media platforms detailing how the vibrations were powerful enough to cause their residences to shake.

A similar event occurred in 2013, when a brilliant meteor traversed the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The residual streak of a meteor that illuminated the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. (Alex Alishevskikh/Wikimedia Commons)

This celestial body, estimated to be roughly house-sized, disintegrated approximately 14 miles above the Earth’s surface, unleashing an explosive force equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT, according to NASA’s assessment.

The resulting detonation caused widespread fracturing of windows across an area of over 200 square miles (approximately 518 square kilometers), leading to over 1,600 injuries, predominantly sustained from flying shards of glass.