Event: 20180220-025736
At 9:57 PM Eastern Standard Time, eyewitnesses in the southeastern United States reported seeing a bright meteor, which was also observed by 4 NASA all sky meteor cameras in the region. The video data enable us to establish that the fireball was first spotted 55 miles above the Oconee Nuclear Station at the south end of Lake Keowee in South Carolina, traveling north of west at 56,000 miles per hour. It completely ablated 17 miles above the Nantahala Woodland Lodge in the mountains of North Carolina. At its brightest, the fireball was as bright as the crescent Moon, indicating it was caused by an asteroidal fragment 3 inches in a diameter and weighing roughly one pound.
NASA Images and Videos
Meteoroid Orbit
Event Data
| Event ID | 20180220-025736 |
| Date (UTC) | Feb. 20, 2018 |
| Time (UTC) | 02:57:36 |
| AMS Event | 677-2018 |
| Size | 3 inches |
| Origin | Asteroidal |
| NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +34.838, -82.928 |
| NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +35.060, -83.574 |
| NASA Camera Altitude | 88.8 km → 27.1 km ( 55.2 miles→ 16.8 miles) |
| NASA Camera Speed | 26.0 km/s (58,100 mph) |
| Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +35.411, -83.308 |
| Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +35.609, -84.319 |
| Chicken Little Altitude | 110.1 km → 45.7 km ( 68.4 miles→ 28.4 miles) |
| Chicken Little Speed | 31.3 km/s (70,000 mph) |