What was the loud boom in Indiana? Meteor speculation erupts amid bright flash sightings 

Indiana natives quickly took to social media after hearing a loud boom that rocked several houses on Friday night. According to WTHR, homeowners in Hamilton, Boone, Noblesville, Westfield and Hendricks counties also reportedly saw a bright light in the sky while hearing an explosion. Authorities reported that there was no damage. While many believe it to be a meteor, officials have confirmed that it was a sonic boom.

The loud boom, accompanied by a bright flash, was observed just before 9 pm local time just outside of Indianapolis. Residents were taken aback, and one person told a news outlet:

“Shook our entire house in Brownsburg! Saw a bright circle thing fly by and then disappear in the sky!”

Another citizen shared:

“I was at a track meet in Monticello, Indiana and was facing southward when around 8 pm, I saw a huge flash of light, but no one else around me saw it. Glad to see I’m not crazy.”

As many took to investigating what occurred, Hamilton County Emergency Management reported that they saw a meteor. They took to their official Twitter account and announced:

“Pilots in Kentucky saw a meteor to the north. A lightning detection system picked up something over Carroll County.”

Ryan Morse, a local meteorologist, also believed that the loud boom was a meteor. He said:

“I suspect this may have been a meteor. On lightning mapper, you see a quick detection with no thunderstorms in the area NW of Indy.”

Matt Eckhoff, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, told WIBC that when meteors enter the atmosphere, they explode, which ends up producing a “loud bang” if they are large enough. The same is accompanied by a bright flash of light.

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What was the loud boom that was heard in Indianapolis?

Hamilton County Emergency Management confirmed online that the explosion was a sonic boom in reality. According to Wonderopolis, a sonic boom is a loud noise that is caused by shock waves which are created when an object moves through air at a faster speed than that of the speed of sound. Due to the huge amounts of sound energy that is dissipated during travel, it leads to a sonic boom.

Several netizens took to social media to share the loud boom that was heard in their locality. Twitter user @dwitty was one of those who captured the occurrence. One can clearly hear the explosion in the video below:

Twitter user @Zielocity also shared a video of the boom that was heard outside his residence.

Police and fire services were investigating the matter at the time of writing this article.

The loud explosion comes days before the yearly Lyrids meteor shower, which is expected to occur on April 29. The same is visible over central Indiana.