Over 60 eyewitnesses in the states of Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey and New York reported seeing a very bright fireball that lasted 9 seconds at 12:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time (2019 April 10 00:49 UTC). It was also observed by three all sky meteor cameras in the region – 2 belonging to the NASA network (Hiram College in Ohio and Allegheny Observatory near Pittsburgh) and 1 belonging to the Southern Ontario Meteor Network (Tavistock, Ontario). Analysis of data from these systems show that the meteor first became visible at an altitude of 57 miles above Napoli, New York moving slightly west of south at 40,700 miles per hour. It managed to travel over 115 miles through the atmosphere before fragmenting 17 miles above the Pennsylvania town of Clarksburg, at which point the speed had slowed to 11,200 miles per hour. The data indicate that the fireball was produced by an asteroidal fragment roughly 2 feet in diameter with a weight around 750 pounds; the low end height and slow final speed leave open the possibility that this event may have produced small meteorites to the west of Pittsburgh – more data is needed to confirm this.
Event ID | 20190410-044852 |
Date (UTC) | April 10, 2019 |
Time (UTC) | 04:48:52 |
AMS Event | 1664-2019 |
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +42.186, -78.908 |
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +40.542, -79.325 |
NASA Camera Altitude | 91.6 km → 26.6 km ( 56.9 miles→ 16.5 miles) |
NASA Camera Speed | 18.2 km/s (40,800 mph) |