Approximately 70 eyewitnesses in the states of Colorado and New Mexico reported seeing a bright fireball on July 28, 2020 at 8:56 PM Mountain Daylight Time (2020 July 29 2:56 UTC). An analysis of their accounts, supplemented by information from publicly available videos, shows that the meteor entered the atmosphere at a shallow angle (about 10 degrees from the horizontal) and became visible at an altitude of 52 miles above Chimney Rock National Monument in southern Colorado near the new Mexico border. The shallow entry angle and slow speed (46,000 miles per hour) permitted the object to traverse 215 miles though the upper atmosphere before burning up some 32 miles above the New Mexico town of Mosquero.
Event ID | 20200729-025553 |
Date (UTC) | July 29, 2020 |
Time (UTC) | 02:55:53 |
AMS Event | 3792-2020 |
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +37.216, -107.322 |
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +35.958, -103.792 |
Chicken Little Altitude | 83.1 km → 52.3 km ( 51.6 miles→ 32.5 miles) |
Chicken Little Speed | 20.4 km/s (45,500 mph) |