NEW YORK, May 31. /TASS/. The fireball causing the loud boom in the State of Massachusetts in the United States broke up at a speed above 120,000 km per hour, a NASA official told TASS.
"Current available information puts the fireball's speed at roughly 75,000 mph [120,700 km/h - TASS], and it appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles [64.3 km - TASS] above extreme northeast Massachusetts/southeast New Hampshire," the NASA official said. "The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms," the official noted.
This fireball "was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," the official added.
