Almost 50 eyewitnesses in Georgia and Florida reported a bright meteor at 12:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time (2019 April 4 04:03 UTC). The event was also captured by 3 NASA meteor cameras located at Kennedy Space Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the University of Central Florida. Analysis of the data provided by these cameras shows that the fireball first became visible at an altitude of 51 miles above Cowhouse Bay at the western edge of the Osceola National Forest. The meteor plummeted almost straight down (angle of 3 degrees from the vertical) at 33,500 miles per hour before ablating 18 miles above the treetops. At its peak, the fireball was brighter than the quarter Moon, which indicates that the asteroidal fragment producing it was about a foot in diameter and weighed approximately 80 pounds.
Event ID | 20190404-040257 |
Date (UTC) | April 4, 2019 |
Time (UTC) | 04:02:57 |
AMS Event | 1560-2019 |
Size | 1 foot |
Origin | Asteroidal |
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +30.423, -82.564 |
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +30.395, -82.574 |
NASA Camera Altitude | 82.1 km → 28.8 km ( 51.0 miles→ 17.9 miles) |
NASA Camera Speed | 15.0 km/s (33,500 mph) |
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +30.200, -82.278 |
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +30.083, -82.329 |
Chicken Little Altitude | 103.5 km → 35.8 km ( 64.3 miles→ 22.3 miles) |
Chicken Little Speed | 20.3 km/s (45,400 mph) |