The loud boom heard across Massachusetts and Rhode Island on May 30 was not thunder, an earthquake or a blown transformer. It was a meteor traveling approximately 42,000 miles per hour.

            That cosmic close call provided a timely opening for “Asteroids, Meteors, and Cosmic Close Calls,” presented by Dr. Sarah Caudill on Friday, July 24, at the Marion Natural History Museum.

            Elizabeth Leidhold, executive director of the 154-year-old museum, introduced Caudill, associate professor of physics at UMass Dartmouth and member of the UMass-URI Gravity Research Consortium. Caudill’s research includes gravitational waves, black holes and neutron stars.

            Caudill recalled hearing the May 30 boom from her kitchen.

            “I thought it was thunder, but I thought it was odd because the sun was out,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘Maybe it’s construction down the street.'”

            The actual cause was a meteor about 5 feet in diameter and weighing an estimated 5.6 metric tons. It fragmented roughly 40 miles above northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire, producing the sonic boom heard across the region. Surviving pieces are believed to have fallen into Cape Cod Bay.

            NASA estimated that the meteor released energy equivalent to about 230 tons of TNT as it broke apart. Much of that energy was dispersed as light, heat and sound while the object traveled through the atmosphere. No injuries or property damage were reported.

            Caudill used the event to explain some commonly confused terms. A meteoroid is a relatively small rock traveling through space. When it enters Earth’s atmosphere and produces a visible streak, it becomes a meteor. Any piece that survives and reaches the ground is called a meteorite. Asteroids are larger, rocky or metallic objects orbiting the sun.

            The May 30 object is believed to have contained a significant amount of iron, explaining how an object roughly as tall as Caudill could weigh more than 5 tons.

            Asteroids can be made of metal, silicate rock or carbon-rich material. Some contain water-bearing minerals and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Scientists believe asteroids and comets may have delivered water and some of the essential ingredients for life to early Earth.

            Caudill also explained that meteor showers come from debris left by comets. The “shooting stars” visible from Earth can be produced by particles no larger than grains of sand.

            Small objects like the one over New England are difficult to detect before they reach the atmosphere. Larger asteroids capable of causing serious damage are generally easier for astronomers to identify and track – and such impacts are far less common.

            For those interested in watching the night sky, Caudill recommended the American Meteor Society’s online Meteor Shower Calendar, which lists upcoming showers and the best times to see them.

            The remnants of the May 30 meteor may now rest about 100 feet beneath Cape Cod Bay, making recovery difficult. For New England residents who heard it, the event offered a rare reminder that Earth is not separate from the activity of the solar system.

            Sometimes, we can even hear it.

By Jeanne Hopkins

            This week in Revolutionary War history, let’s check up on what was going on 250 years ago in the Thirteen Colonies. Last week, General George Washington and other Revolutionaries sought a way to stop the British from amassing on Staten Island, though a planned attack was called off. Admiral Richard Howe and his brother General William Howe have conversed with Washington by letter, hoping to find peace, but Washington does not seek a meeting.

            On July 26, 1776, in his General Orders, Washington commands the Continental Army soldiers to treat locals with respect. He writes, “Complaints have been made that some of the soldiers ill-treat the country people, who come to market; the general most positively forbids such behavior, and hopes the officers will exert themselves to prevent it: good policy as well as justice, demands that they should have all possible encouragement as the health of the soldiers much depends upon supplies of vegetables; those who have been guilty of such practices, will do well to consider what will be our situation, at this season, if we drive off the country people, and break up the market – the healthy will soon be sick, and the sick must perish for want of necessaries: no favor will be shown to any offenders hereafter.” These orders come after numerous reports to Washington of embezzlement of food and goods by soldiers. As many in New York remain Loyalists to the Crown, it is imperative to maintain what remains of public support; as well as supplies for the army.

            The next day, Brigadier General Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island writes that he has captured four local New Yorkers who were attempting to board a boat for Staten Island, where the British forces are concentrating. He would write back later that day, after “examining the prisoners,” noting he “find them to be a poor parcel of ignorant cowardly fellows.” Of the interrogation, he finds, “They candidly confess they set off with an intention of going to Staten Island, but not with any intention of joining the enemy; but to get out of the way of fighting here.” In other words, the fighting age men look to avoid conscription. He concludes, “Never did I see fellows more frighted, they wept like a parcel of children and appear exceeding sorrowful.”

            On July 28 in his General Orders, Washington moves away from talk of bolstering defenses, raising more men, or bettering the supply network and instead writes that he is, “finding the number of sick to increase.” He moves to better organize the sick, by severity of illness and condition, and also asks a registry of said sick soldiers be made and updated weekly. Interestingly, he makes efforts to change the diet of the sick, ordering, “As the rations issued for men in health, are very improper for those who are sick, the following resolutions are to take place – whenever a person is taken sick he is not to be borne on the provision return; but the value of his rations be obtained in suitable supplies from the General Hospital to be drawn by the surgeons of the regiment who is to conform to the rules of diet established in the General Hospitals and to account with the Director General.” Thereby, he orders the sick be given food more apt to help them in recovery.

            Far off, in a land that will, in less than 100 years, be part of the United States, on July 29 Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante depart Sante Fe to chart an overland route to California for the Spanish colony of New Spain.

            On August 1, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts speaks before Congress, as the body moves to sign the Declaration of Independence. In his fiery speech, he says, “We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one cause.” He continues, “We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude – Our union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may justly address you, as the Decemviri did the Romans, and say: ‘Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends.’” Adams draws comparisons to the establishment of the Roman Republic, and claims the revolutionaries have the hand of God on their side.

            The next day, on August 2, 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration in the Pennsylvania State House. Signatures are grouped by state, except President John Hancock, who famously signed larger and toward the top.

This Week in Revolutionary War History

By Sam Bishop