FIRE IN THE SKY: "Brightest Fireball Observed By NASA In 5 Years" - Meteor Lights Up U.S. Night Sky!

FIRE IN THE SKY: "Brightest Fireball Observed By NASA In 5 Years" - Meteor Lights Up U.S. Night Sky!
Sept 2, 2013 | Andre Heath


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September 02, 2013 - SPACE - NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has upgraded its estimates of a major fireball that exploded over the southeastern USA around 2:30 AM on August 28th.

Lead researcher Bill Cooke says "the fireball reached a peak apparent magnitude of -16, about 20 times brighter than a Full Moon, and cast shadows on the ground.

This indicates that the meteoroid had a mass of more than 110 kg (240 lbs) and was up to a meter in diameter. It hit the top of Earth's atmosphere traveling 25 km/s (56,000 mph)."

"This is the brightest event our network has observed in 5 years of operation," he continues.

"There are reports of sonic booms reaching the ground, and data from 4 doppler radars indicate that some meteorites may have fallen along the fireball's ground track." (Note: The city in the ground track map is Cleveland, Tennessee, not Cleveland, Ohio.)

An initial calculation of the fireball's orbit suggested it might be a fragment from a Jupiter family comet.

Improved estimates of the orbital parameters point to a different kind of object: a main belt asteroid.

If meteorites are recovered from the Tennessee countryside, their chemical composition will tell researchers more about the origin of the fireball.