Event: 20201223-000439


Many eyewitnesses in the SouthEast report seeing a bright fireball on 2020 December 22, at 7:04:39 PM Eastern Standard Time (2020 December 23 00:04:39 UTC). It was also detected by 4 NASA all sky meteor cameras in the region and an analysis of the video data shows that the fireball – which was caused by an asteroidal fragment 4 inches in diameter and weighing about 2 pounds – became visible at an altitude of 47 miles above the hilly country just south of Braswell, Georgia. Descending at a very steep angle, the meteor, moving at 29,000 miles per hour, passed over the town of Rockmart before disintegrating 20 miles above Aragorn. Its former orbit is a low inclination asteroidal type, with an aphelion well beyond the orbit of Mars.


NASA Images and Videos


Meteoroid Orbit


Event Data

Event ID 20201223-000439
Date (UTC) Dec. 23, 2020
Time (UTC) 00:04:39
AMS Event 8034-2020
Size 2 lbs, 4 inches
Origin asteroidal
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon +33.964, -84.970
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon +34.046, -85.041
NASA Camera Altitude 74.8 km → 31.5 km ( 46.5 miles→ 19.6 miles)
NASA Camera Speed 13.0 km/s (29,100 mph)