This is what caused the mysterious sonic boom above Texas

The cause of the mysterious sonic boom that rocked Southern Texas earlier this month was attributed to the breakup of a meteoroid in Earth's atmosphere according to officials from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. 

On February 15th, residents of Southern Texas were rocked by a mysterious explosion and intense sonic boom that shook houses and left many wondering if something terrible had happened. 

Luckily, the event wasn’t a nuclear blast but rather the break up of a meteoroid that had entered Earth’s atmosphere traveling at a relatively slow speed. 

The meteoroid was traveling at a speed of 27,000 miles per hour and its breakup in Earth’s atmosphere had the energy of eight tons of TNT according to information posted by NASA Meteor Watch on their Facebook page in conjunction with the press release from the agency's Johnson Space Center. 

Meteor Watch added that the celestial object broke into several pieces at an altitude 21 miles above the Earth’s surface, many of which rained down on the town of McAllen. 

No injuries or property damage were reported from the incident according to NASA but the agency did reiterate the need for more monitoring in a press release that was posted on its official website. 

“The meteor seen in the skies above McAllen is a reminder of the need for NASA and other organizations to increase our understanding and protection of Earth,” the press release from NASA's Johnson Space Center read.

Experts from NASA were able to quickly identify the meteoroid as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and included some of their initial findings in their press release.

“Based on analysis of preliminary information from several sources,” authors of the press release wrote, “NASA experts believe the object was a meteoroid about two feet in diameter weighing about 1,000 pounds,” a size which lead The Jeruselum Post to run the headline: "Corgi-sized meteor as heavy as 4 baby elephants hit Texas."

“The angle and speed of entry, along with signatures in weather radar imagery, are consistent with other naturally occurring meteorite falls,” the press release added. 

“Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow as they travel through the atmosphere, breaking into small fragments before hitting the ground,” the press release from NASA’s Johnson Space Center continued. 

Local meteorite hunting groups were quick to go searching for pieces of the fallen meteor and meteorites began showing up on social media soon after the incident.

Photo by Facebook @amsmeteor

Robert Ward was one of the people to discover a fragment from the event above Texas, which he found on February 18th according to The American Meteor Society, a group dedicated to publishing information about meteors and meteorites in the United States. 

Photo credit Robert Ward and American Meteor Society

According to NASA, a meteoroid is a “small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun” whereas a meteor is the “light phenomena” that occurs when “a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere and vaporizes,” becoming what we sometimes call a “shooting star.”

A meteorite is a smaller piece of a meteoroid that survives its impact with Earth’s atmosphere and eventually makes its way to the ground to be found by humans. 

"Our planet is continually bombarded by rocks and extraterrestrial dust," wrote Franz Lidz in a 2019 Smithsonian Magazine article, "an estimated 25 million meteors enter the atmosphere each day."