On November 30, 2021 at 9:18 PM Central Standard Time (2021 December 1 3:18 UTC), numerous eyewitnesses in the several states reported seeing a very bright fireball. It was detected by all 5 NASA meteor cameras in the SouthEast; an analysis of the video shows that the object -- a piece of a comet about a foot in diameter and weighing approximately 60 pounds -- began to ablate 55 miles above some fields south of the town of Hillsboro in middle Tennessee. Moving southwest at 62,000 miles per hour, the meteor only managed to travel some 27 miles through the atmosphere before disintegrating 22 miles above Tims Ford State Park. At its peak, the fireball was brighter than the Full Moon, explaining why it was seen in several states.
Event ID | 20211201-031754 |
Date (UTC) | Dec. 1, 2021 |
Time (UTC) | 03:17:54 |
AMS Event | 8372-2021 |
Size | 1 ft or 60 lbs |
Origin | cometary |
NASA Camera Start Lat/Lon | +35.369, -85.925 |
NASA Camera End Lat/Lon | +35.253, -86.195 |
NASA Camera Altitude | 87.6 km → 35.8 km ( 54.4 miles→ 22.3 miles) |
NASA Camera Speed | 27.6 km/s (61,900 mph) |