Event: 20191113-030445


At 10:05 PM last evening (2019 November 13 3:05 UTC), members of the public along the East Coast from Virginia to Massachusetts reported seeing a bright fireball. An analysis of these accounts combined with data from 3 cameras in the region (NASA all sky meteor camera at Allegheny Observatory in Pennsylvania, a long exposure camera at Bluebirds Knoll Observatory in Bethany, Connecticut and an EarthCam at Ft. McHenry in Maryland) indicates that this meteor was a member of the currently active Taurid meteor shower, as the radiant was computed to be in the constellation of Taurus, and the speed is a good match to that of the Taurids (58,000 miles per hour). The fireball's trajectory was completely over the Atlantic, starting at an altitude of 66 miles and ending off to the northwest at 38 miles above a point 29 miles due east of the New Jersey town of Asbury Park. The piece of Comet Encke producing the fireball was about 4 inches in diameter and weighed about 2 pounds. It completely ablated, so no meteorites were produced by this event.


Event Data

Event ID 20191113-030445
Date (UTC) Nov. 13, 2019
Time (UTC) 03:04:45
AMS Event 5571-2019
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon +40.076, -73.149
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon +40.182, -73.472
NASA Camera Altitude 106.9 km → 61.4 km ( 66.4 miles→ 38.1 miles)
NASA Camera Speed 25.8 km/s (57,600 mph)
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon +40.255, -73.324
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon +40.358, -73.410
Chicken Little Altitude 97.6 km → 75.3 km ( 60.7 miles→ 46.8 miles)
Chicken Little Speed 29.9 km/s (66,900 mph)