A 'Fireball' That Lit Up The Skies In Ohio Was Actually A Meteor
A flash lit up the skies over Pennsylvania and Ohio in the early morning hours. Many people reported the sighting of a streaking ¡®fireball¡¯ anywhere from 4 to 6:30 a.m that remained in the sky for a short time before disappearing from view.
A flash lit up the skies over Pennsylvania and Ohio in the early morning hours of September 30. Many people reported the sighting of a streaking ¡®fireball¡¯ between 4:00 to 6:30 am that remained in the sky for a short time before disappearing from view.
It has now been established that the fireball was a meteor that ¡®dove almost straight down into the atmosphere¡¯.
Wow! This meteoroid dove almost straight down into the atmosphere! #meteor #fireball #space pic.twitter.com/WDwAppfs0E
¡ª Scott Sutherland (@ScottWx_TWN) September 30, 2020
Multiple videos of the sightings have turned up on social media, one more awe inspiring than the others. In the videos one can see the meteor lighting up the sky completely for a few seconds before disappearing.
It is believed that the brighter a meteor the rarer it is.
A trucker heading west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford County captured what appeared to be a quick streak of light on his dash cam and the video is mesmerising.
¡°There was also a sonic boom, and it lit up the whole entire sky for about 3 to 4 seconds,¡± he reportedly said.
Meteor physics postdoctoral researcher Denis Vida posted updates on his Twitter account regarding the sighting. In one tweet he details, ¡®An initial solution shows it had a steep entry angle of 66 deg and velocity of 50 km/s. It ended at the height ~75 km. Too fast and too high to produce meteorites¡¯.
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Videos of the #Ohio #meteor taken by @WesternU ASGARD systems. An initial solution shows it had a steep entry angle of 66 deg and velocity of 50 km/s. It ended at the height ~75 km. Too fast and too high to produce meteorites.@amsmeteors @BadAstronomer @ScottWx_TWN pic.twitter.com/sJSGOkVJ6y
¡ª Denis Vida (@meteordoc) September 30, 2020
Confirming the sighting AMS wrote on its website, ¡®The AMS received more than 320 reports so far about a fireball event that occurred over Ohio on September 30, 2020 around 10:24 Universal Time (06:24 EDT). The AMS #2020-5441 event was mainly seen from the Ohio but we also received reports from Washington DC, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Ontario¡¯.
What is a Fireball?
Thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth¡¯s atmosphere each day. However, a majority of these occur over oceans and uninhabited regions, and many cannot be seen because of the daylight. Those that occur at night also stand a low chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them and even light pollution.
Bright flash caused by a fireball in Ohio this morning (Sept 30, 10:24:47 UTC) caught by one #globalmeteornetwork camera. Unfortunately it was below the field of view of this camera, will post more images once we have them.@amsmeteors @BadAstronomer @westernuSpace pic.twitter.com/HHc4BEvlRI
¡ª Denis Vida (@meteordoc) September 30, 2020
This particular meteor seemed really bright. Just a few days ago another meteor was sighted and that one just bounced off our atmosphere - it was an earthgrazer.