Bright Meteor over New Mexico

Just so you know – there was a very bright event over Southwest on Saturday, October 19 at 8:16 PM local time.

The fireball was picked up New Mexico State University meteor camera. It looks to be a grazing fireball.

“ We are uncertain of the origin of the fireball at this time. However, this one was very bright!” said Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

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Meteor Fragment Streaks Over Alabama and Georgia

Monday, Sept 9 at 8:18 PM Central Time, a baseball size fragment of a comet entered Earth’s atmosphere above Alabama, moving southwest at a speed of 76,000 miles per hour. At such speeds, fragile cometary material will not last long. Just 3 seconds after hitting the atmosphere, the meteor disintegrated 25 miles above the town of Woodstock, producing a flash of light rivaling the waxing crescent Moon. Because it penetrated so deep into Earth’s atmosphere, sonic booms were produced, which were heard by eyewitnesses.

A montage of the fireball as seen by 5 NASA cameras in the Southeast is attached, along with the meteor’s trajectory, which lies south of Birmingham. Also attached is a diagram showing the meteor’s orbit, which extends well beyond the orbit of Jupiter and is similar to those of  comets. It was not a member of any known meteor shower.

A fireball is a meteor brighter than the planet Venus – the fireball seen Monday night  was 15 times brighter than Venus.

The NASA cameras observing this event are located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville; the James Smith Planetarium near Chickamauga, Georgia; the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville Georgia; and the North Georgia College Observatory near Dahlonega, Georgia.

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NASA Catches Bright Fireballs Over the Southeast

Early Wednesday morning, at 3:27:20 AM Eastern Time, a piece of an asteroid, about 2 feet in diameter and weighing over 100 pounds, entered Earth’s atmosphere above the Georgia/Tennessee border, just south of Cleveland. The meteor was moving northeast at 56,000 miles per hour, and began to break apart north east of Ocoee, at an altitude of 33 miles. A second, fragmentation occurred less than half a second later, at an altitude of 29 miles. NASA cameras lost track of the fireball pieces at an altitude of 21 miles, by which time they had slowed to a speed of 19,400 mph. Sensors on the ground recorded sound waves (“sonic booms”) from this event, and there are indications on Doppler weather radar of a rain of small meteoritic particles falling to the ground east of Cleveland, Tennessee.

Recorded by all six NASA cameras in the Southeast, this fireball was one of the brightest observed by the network in 5 years of operations.  From Chickamauga, Georgia, the meteor was 20 times brighter than the Full Moon; shadows were cast on the ground as far south as Cartersville.

NASA All Sky Fireball Network Cameras Catch Perseids

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaked on Aug. 12 and 13, 2013, filling the sky with streaks of light caused by the meteoroids burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Big meteor showers like the Perseids, are caused when Earth travels through a region of space filled with debris shed by a comet. The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are the small fragments from comet Swift-Tuttle. These bits of ice and dust wander in space for centuries, finally burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year.

Compilation of Perseid meteors taken by the NASA All Sky Fireball Network cameras. Video credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO

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This Perseid fireball meteor was observed in the skies over Chickamauga, Ga., on Aug. 11, 2013, at 2:14:49 a.m. EDT. It was also recorded by four other cameras in the NASA All Sky Fireball Network. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO

Perseids Already Lighting Up The Night

Here is a video of a bright Perseid seen by our all-sky camera located at PARI (NC) in the early morning hours of July 30. Several Perseids have already been detected and they are not set to peak for over a week! The nights of August 11-12 and 12-13 will be the best time to observe, but check out fireballs.ndc.nasa.gov regularly to see how many have already been detected by our all-sky cameras!

 

Bright Fireball Over North Carolina

The American Meteor Society has received over 80 reports from the public about a bright fireball seen on July 13, 2013 at 04:16:18 UTC (corresponding to July 13, 2013 at 00:16:18 EDT).  Fireball sightings range from Georgia and South Carolina up through Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, with most coming from North Carolina.

The NASA All Sky Fireball Network detected this fireball with four cameras stationed in Chickamauga, Georgia, Tullahoma, Tennessee, Dahlonega, Georgia, and Cartersville, Georgia.  The event was just on the edge of the field of view in each camera, but bright enough to get the attention of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama, the engineers who run the NASA Network.

Preliminary analysis of NASA data indicates that this fireball came in at a speed of 28.1 km/s (62,900 mph) at an angle of 32 degrees from horizontal.  The 600 g (1.3 lb) body was first picked up over Stanley, North Carolina at an altitude of 66.1 km (41 miles) and ablated most if not all of its mass away until it was last detected at 22.6 km (14 miles) over Morganton, North Carolina.

If you observed this fireball you can make a report to the American Meteor Society.  If you’d like to look through more images/movies of meteors please visit the NASA All Sky Fireball Network.

fireball1Image of the North Carolina fireball of July 13, 2013 taken by the NASA All Sky Fireball Network camera in Chickamauga, Georgia.  The fireball exhibited a bright flare towards the end of its path. (Image Credit: NASA MEO)

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The fireball trajectory is shown as a green line – the meteor moved from southeast to northwest.  The southeastern branch of the NASA All Sky Fireball Network is shown as diamonds – red diamonds indicate that the fireball was observed from that station.  Stations with a black diamond did not observe the fireball due to weather or geometry. Observer report information (blue people symbols) is taken from the American Meteor Society.  (Image Credit: NASA MEO)

Fireball in the Sky!

The NASA All Sky Fireball Network detected this beauty on May 16, 2013 at 03:11:50 UTC.  Observed by 6 meteor cameras, this fireball penetrated deep into the atmosphere, making it down to an altitude of 36 km (22 miles).

A view of the fireball from Cartersville, Georgia.  (NASA/MEO)

The 350 gram meteoroid responsible for this brilliant display entered the atmosphere at around 22 km/s (49,000 mph) — slow for a meteoroid! — and decelerated to about 10 km/s (22,000 mph) before disintegrating over northwest Georgia.

Map showing the location of 6 cameras in the NASA All Sky Fireball Network.  Color-coded circles indicate the approximate field of view of each camera.  The meteor’s path is shown in white. (NASA/MEO/D. Moser)

Calculations indicate a radiant in the constellation Libra.

Eta Aquarids Caught on Camera

 

Same meteor — same location — two different meteor cameras! The video shows the same meteor (an Eta Aquarid!) from one of our all-sky cameras and from our wide-field camera (~20×15 degree FOV) both located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

 

 

(Credit: All Sky Camera Network)

NASA All Sky Fireball Network Captures Eta Aquarids

A composite image of 13 Eta Aquarid meteors from the NASA All Sky Fireball Network station in Mayhill, New Mexico the morning of May 6, 2013.  Clouds seriously hampered our view of the ETAs this year. Observations reported to the International Meteor Organization indicate an outburst in the early hours of  May 6th UTC.

(Credit: All Sky Camera Network)

First Observations of the 2013 Eta Aquarids

Despite interference from the moon and clouds (and rising sun!), this morning we snagged our first observations of the 2013 Eta Aquarids.  Here’s an image of one from the all sky camera in Tullahoma, Tennessee.  The Eta Aquarids peak in the pre-dawn hours on May 6 and are material from Halley’s comet.  They zoom around the solar system at speeds near 148,000 mph.  The one seen here burned up completely in our atmosphere over Nunnelly, Tennessee at a height of 58.7 miles above the ground.

(Credit: All Sky Camera Network)