Event: 20210227-030704
Observers in Ontario, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania report seeing a bright fireball on February 26 at 10:07 PM EST (2021 February 27 3:07 UTC). This event was captured by several all sky meteor cameras belonging to the NASA All Sky Fireball Network and the Southern Ontario Meteor Network operated by Western University. A first analysis of the video data shows that the meteor appeared 90 km (56 miles) above Erieau on the northern shore of Lake Erie. It moved northwest at a speed of 105,800 kilometers per hour (65,800 miles per hour), crossing the U.S./Canada border before ablating 32 kilometers (20 miles) above Fair Haven, Michigan.
The orbit of the object is low inclination (8 degrees with respect to the ecliptic) and has an aphelion out near the orbit of Jupiter and a perihelion between the orbits of Mercury and Venus. It suggests that the meteor was caused by a fragment of a Jupiter family comet, though an asteroidal origin is also possible. At its brightest, the fireball rivaled the quarter Moon in intensity. Combining this with the speed gives the fragment a mass of at least 2 kilograms and a diameter of approximately 12 centimeters (5 inches).
Images and Video from NASA and Western University's Southern Ontario Meteor Network
Meteoroid Orbit
Event Data
| Event ID | 20210227-030704 |
| Date (UTC) | Feb. 27, 2021 |
| Time (UTC) | 03:07:04 |
| AMS Event | 1160-2021 |
| Magnitude | -9.0 |
| Size | 5in or 2kg |
| Origin | JFC or asteroid |
| NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +42.251, -81.941 |
| NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +42.716, -82.668 |
| NASA Camera Altitude | 90.0 km → 31.7 km ( 55.9 miles→ 19.7 miles) |
| NASA Camera Speed | 29.4 km/s (65,800 mph) |
| Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +42.686, -82.229 |
| Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +43.104, -82.724 |
| Chicken Little Altitude | 90.5 km → 61.9 km ( 56.2 miles→ 38.5 miles) |
| Chicken Little Speed | 29.2 km/s (65,300 mph) |