NASA confirmed a meteorite fall on Saturday after multiple eyewitnesses in southern Texas reported a loud explosion and a bright fireball. A suspected meteorite fragment reportedly crashed through a house in the Houston area, according to several local news outlets.

Residents in the Greater Houston Area in southern Texas reported hearing a booming sound resembling thunder or an explosion on Saturday afternoon, according to local news outlets and the fire department.

NASA later verified the sighting, pinpointing the fall at 4:40 p.m. local time on March 21. The agency stated that the meteorite was visible about 79 kilometers above Stagecoach, northwest of Houston, moving southeast at about 56,327 kph, and broke apart about 47 km above Bammel, roughly 30 km north of downtown Houston.

The meteorite is estimated to weigh roughly 907 kg and have a diameter of about 0.9 meters, according to the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office. Most of its mass was converted into atoms and fine droplets in the explosion, which released energy equivalent to about 23.5 tonnes of TNT, NASA reported.

A possible meteorite fragment that survived the blast reportedly struck a house in the north Houston suburb, according to CBS News and Fox 26, a local station. The fragment pierced the roof and two stories of the house, fire chief Fred Windisch told CBS News.

The suspected fragment, described by local firefighters as an "unusual rock," landed in the kitchen of a Houston resident's home. No one was hurt in the incident, according to a Fox 26 report.

Earlier this week, on March 17, a space rock estimated to weigh about 6.35 tonnes caused a daytime fireball seen across multiple US states. NASA described the object as "more of a small asteroid than a large meteoroid."

(With inputs from agencies)