Did a Meteor Explode Over New Hampshire? That May Explain the Boom.

U.S.|Did a Meteor Explode Over New Hampshire? That May Explain the Boom.

The theories lit up the internet: An earthquake indispensable person caused a prolonged roar that shook homes connected Sunday greeting successful New Hampshire and astatine slightest 1 neighboring state.

Some hypothesized that the puzzling disturbance mightiness person been the dependable of an craft breaking the dependable barrier. Both scenarios were rapidly discounted.

Now immoderate meteorologists deliberation they tin explicate the mystery.

Satellite imagery suggests that a meteor mightiness person exploded successful the ambiance implicit New Hampshire, according to those meteorologists, who accidental that mentation is not astatine each acold out.

This clip of year, they pointed out, is known for aggravated meteor showers: the Draconids that peaked 2 days earlier and the Orionids that proceed until November. The fireballs that detonate successful a agleam terminal flash, often with disposable fragmentation, are known arsenic bolides, according to the American Meteor Society.

“Sure enough, determination was a small blip determination close astir the clip that folks started calling and reporting astir the sound,” Greg Cornwell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service successful Gray, Maine, the forecast bureau for New Hampshire, said successful an interrogation connected Tuesday.

Mr. Cornwell said that the blip was detected by a geostationary upwind satellite, known arsenic GOES-16, that was utilized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He and his colleagues reviewed the satellite provender from Sunday morning. On it, a bluish dot flashed implicit confederate New Hampshire astir 11:21 a.m.

“It wasn’t until the adjacent greeting erstwhile we were like, ‘Well, I wonderment what the origin was?’” helium said. “There was a batch treatment from the public.”

“Now determination person been cases wherever these benignant of exploding fireballs oregon bolides volition origin a mendacious positive,” helium said. “It showed up successful the data, and it’s benignant of a hunch.”

Doug Chappel, a mechanical technologist from Hillsborough, N.H., which is astir 25 miles westbound of Concord, N.H., said successful an interrogation connected Tuesday that helium was hiking with his household successful the Fox Forest erstwhile helium heard the boom.

“I’m a Cold War kid,” Mr. Chappel said. “If I coiled up uncovering retired that Boston and New York had been incinerated by an H-bomb, I wouldn’t person been surprised.”

Mr. Chappel said his household utilized to unrecorded successful Florida and had been accustomed to proceeding the dependable of the abstraction shuttle launching and returning to earth. What helium experienced connected Sunday — extended thunder-like peals caught connected location information camera footage provided by Mr. Chappel — was thing different.

“It lasted excessively agelong to beryllium a sonic roar signature,” Mr. Chappel said.

Paul D. Raymond Jr., a strategical communications head for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, said successful an email connected Tuesday that the agency’s partners astatine the Weather Service were eyeing a meteor arsenic the root of the disturbance and were investigating.

NASA did not instantly remark connected Tuesday.

In the full Northeast, determination person been nary earthquakes successful the past 7 days, according to the National Earthquake Information Center, which is portion of the U.S. Geological Survey and maintains a representation of seismic events.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said connected Tuesday that the bureau had nary reports related to immoderate craft sound successful the area, portion section officials person said that the dependable did not travel from a subject aircraft.

Mike Wankum, a meteorologist for the television presumption WCVB, an ABC affiliate for Boston, reached a akin decision arsenic forecasters astatine the Weather Service astir a meteor detonation perchance causing the boom.

“Now it has to detonate 30 miles oregon little to get that sonic roar that’s retired there,” Mr. Wankum said during a broadcast connected Monday. “And it tin instrumentality a infinitesimal and a fractional to 4 minutes to get that rumble to benignant of enactment its mode through. But that’s astir apt what you were hearing.”