A recent fireball traveling at 75,000 miles per hour caused a sonic boom that startled residents in New England, according to NASA. The incident echoed a similar occurrence in South Carolina earlier in the week.

Loud noises were reported in the Boston area on Saturday and in South Carolina on Thursday. NASA confirmed that the sound in Boston was from a fireball entering the atmosphere, while the source of the South Carolina disturbance remains unknown.

This week, the East Coast experienced two incidents that left residents puzzled by intense booms that rattled their surroundings. The most recent event occurred on Saturday at around 2 p.m. when a fireball streaked through the Boston skies, NASA stated.

NASA reported that as the meteor plunged into Earth’s atmosphere, it reached speeds of up to 75,000 miles per hour. The meteor disintegrated about 40 miles above the border separating Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The breakup of the meteor released energy similar to 300 tons of TNT, which explains the loud noises heard by residents, NASA explained. This phenomenon was unrelated to any meteor shower.

Before NASA provided an explanation, discussions on social media ranged from fears of a nuclear event to speculations about extraterrestrial activity. Rich Sauro from Medfield, Massachusetts, located approximately 40 miles west of Boston, experienced this unexpected disturbance while he was resting in his bedroom.