On the night of October 31, 2020 (Halloween) well over 150 eyewitnesses in the states of Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia reported seeing a fireball at 7:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time (2020 October 31 23:35 UTC). The meteor was also detected by 3 NASA all sky cameras located in Ohio and Tennessee - an analysis of the video data places the start of the meteor at an altitude of 52 miles above Nicholasville, south of Lexington, Kentucky. It moved slightly south of east from this point, travelling 36 kilometers through the upper atmosphere at a speed of 37,000 miles per hour before ablating 24 miles above the farmlands south of the town of Ford. Due to the meteor being on the extreme edge of the fields of view of all 3 NASA cameras, only an estimate of the lower limit to its brightness can be made, which is equivalent to that of a crescent Moon. When combined with the speed and orbit information, this indicates that the fireball was caused by a main belt asteroidal fragment at least 5 inches in diameter with a weight in excess of 6 pounds.
Event ID | 20201031-233450 |
Date (UTC) | Oct. 31, 2020 |
Time (UTC) | 23:34:50 |
AMS Event | 6173-2020 |
Size | 6 lbs |
Origin | main belt asteroidal |
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +37.877, -84.628 |
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +37.849, -84.242 |
NASA Camera Altitude | 82.8 km → 38.0 km ( 51.4 miles→ 23.6 miles) |
NASA Camera Speed | 16.4 km/s (36,800 mph) |
Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +37.846, -84.769 |
Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +37.819, -84.035 |
Chicken Little Altitude | 86.0 km → 56.1 km ( 53.4 miles→ 34.8 miles) |
Chicken Little Speed | 23.7 km/s (53,000 mph) |