On Wednesday (April 27th), spectators watched a ball of fire spread across the southeastern sky.
At around 9:03 a.m. EDT (1,300 GMT) on Wednesday morning, more than 30 people from Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi said they were looking up and seeing a fireball in the sky. Shortly afterwards, people in southern Mississippi reported hearing a loud “boom.”
The explosive sound came from a fiery meteorite passing through it Earth’s atmosphere at 55,000 miles per hour (88,500 km / h), generating the energy equivalent of 3 tonnes of TNT as it disintegrates, creating shock waves that reached the ground and made a loud “boom”. according to a NASA statement.
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The location of witnesses to the fireball on April 27, 2022 (Image: NASA / American Meteor Society)
Scientists believe the object was an asteroid about 1 foot (0.3 meters) in diameter that disintegrated about 34 miles (55 km) above the swampy region of Louisiana, north of the city of Menorca.
At its peak, the car, or extremely bright meteor, was probably more than 10 times brighter than a full moon, according to the same NASA statement. But despite its incredible brightness, not many people report seeing it in the sky.
“What struck me as unusual was how few eyewitness accounts we had, given that the sky was so clear,” said Bill Cook, head of NASA’s Meteorological Environment Service at the Marshall Space Flight Center, in a statement. in Huntsville, Alabama. “More people heard it than saw it.”
Image of the fireball on April 27, 2022, taken by the GLM instrument of GOES 16. (Image credit: NOAA)
While people on Earth in most cases simply heard the meteor making its way to Earth, the satellites in orbit were able to see the event.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostational Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 16 and 17 spotted a number of bright flashes that scientists believe are caused by the meteor’s decay into the atmosphere. according to the statement. .
“This is one of the best events I’ve seen in GLM data,” Cook said.
The site was first spotted by satellites 54 miles (87 km) above the Mississippi River near the state of Alcorn.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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