Numerous eyewitnesses in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee reported seeing a bright fireball at 10:11 PM Central Daylight Time. There was considerable cloud cover at the time, so this meteor was detected by only two NASA cameras located in NE Georgia and North Carolina. Their extreme range and the fact that they were positioned along a straight line from the event preclude a trajectory solution at this time, though the data was used to establish the brightness of the fireball, which was close to that of the 1st quarter Moon. However, an analysis of the eyewitness accounts puts the origin of the meteor some 56 miles above Oak Bowery, Alabama, just north of Auburn. Moving at 56,000 miles per hour slightly west of north, the object - which was about 5 inches in diameter and weighed around 4 pounds - travelled 38 miles through the atmosphere before burning up 26 miles above the town of Cragford. Based on available information, no meteorites are expected to have been produced by this event.
Event ID | 20180923-031118 |
Date (UTC) | Sept. 23, 2018 |
Time (UTC) | 03:11:18 |
AMS Event | 3799-2018 |
Size | 5 inches |
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +32.922, -85.452 |
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +33.366, -85.547 |
Chicken Little Altitude | 109.9 km → 42.6 km ( 68.3 miles→ 26.5 miles) |
Chicken Little Speed | 25.6 km/s (57,300 mph) |