Many eyewitnesses in the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming have filed reports of a bright fireball seen at 3:33 am Mountain Daylight Time on the morning of August 27 (9:33 UTC). An analysis of these reports indicates that the fireball became visible 51 miles above Colorado’s Grand Lake, moving slightly west of south at 41,000 miles per hour. Traveling just over 48 miles in 4 seconds, the meteor disintegrated at an altitude of 31 miles above Keystone Forest.
Though it was difficult to distinguish from all the lightning signatures, we believe we have identified the fireball in data from the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on the GOES-16 and GOES-18 spacecraft. This information indicates that the object causing the meteor was just over a foot in diameter; it broke apart with an energy between 3 to 7 tons of TNT. The shock waves from the disintegration traveled to the ground, producing the booms and shakings reported by some in the area.
| Event ID | 20230827-093306 |
| Date (UTC) | Aug. 27, 2023 |
| Time (UTC) | 09:33:06 |
| AMS Event | 4825-2023 |
| Chicken Little Start Lat/Lon | +40.223, -105.786 |
| Chicken Little End Lat/Lon | +39.598, -105.941 |
| Chicken Little Altitude | 81.3 km → 49.9 km ( 50.5 miles→ 31.0 miles) |
| Chicken Little Speed | 18.4 km/s (41,200 mph) |