At 8:51:45 PM last evening (2019 November 12 2:51:45 UTC), hundreds of eyewitnesses located in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Minnesota reported seeing a very bright fireball. An analysis of their accounts, along with data from an EarthCam camera in St. Louis and from a camera located at Missouri Skies (near Albany, Missouri), has established that this fireball first became visible at an altitude of 59 miles above the town of Cedar Hill, just to the southwest of St. Louis. The meteor moved to the northwest at 33,500 miles per hour, traveling some 70 miles through Earth’s atmosphere before ablating 12 miles above the town of Bridgeport, northeast of Hermann. The orbit and brightness of this fireball indicate that it was caused by a fragment of an asteroid about 16 inches in diameter (basketball size), weighing over 200 pounds. Based on the information currently available, it is possible that this event produced meteorites north of Bridgepoint/McKittrick.
The fireball was also detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) onboard the GOES 16 weather satellite, which supports the eyewitnesses reports of the fireball being brighter than the Full Moon.
Event ID | 20191112-025148 |
Date (UTC) | Nov. 12, 2019 |
Time (UTC) | 02:51:48 |
AMS Event | 5566-2019 |
Size | 16 inches |
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +38.392, -90.680 |
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +38.752, -91.408 |
NASA Camera Altitude | 93.6 km → 18.5 km ( 58.2 miles→ 11.5 miles) |
NASA Camera Speed | 15.6 km/s (34,800 mph) |
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +39.075, -91.073 |
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +39.241, -91.443 |
Chicken Little Altitude | 98.9 km → 50.8 km ( 61.5 miles→ 31.5 miles) |
Chicken Little Speed | 17.5 km/s (39,100 mph) |