A stunning fireball surprised residents of Florida on Sunday night when a small fragment of an asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere at over 87,000 kilometers per hour and ultimately disintegrated over the ocean, near the Florida Keys.
NASA reported this Monday that the glowing object appeared around 10:00 PM on Sunday, Eastern Time.
The agency confirmed, through an analysis of the available records, that it was a fragment of an asteroid measuring approximately 61 centimeters in diameter.
According to specialists' calculations, the meteor was initially detected at about 86.5 kilometers above a point in the Gulf of Mexico, directly west of Islamorada in the Florida Keys.
The object traveled approximately 48 kilometers southwest at a speed of about 87,700 kilometers per hour before disintegrating at about 56.8 kilometers above the ocean, northwest of Key West.
The enormous speed of the fragment caused its passage through the atmosphere to generate a bright flash of light, known as a meteor or fireball.
Although the phenomenon may seem like an explosion near the surface, in this case the disintegration occurred tens of kilometers up.
NASA specified that more than a hundred witnesses in Florida reported to the American Meteor Society (American Meteor Society, AMS). The organization provided additional information that helped reconstruct the trajectory of the object.
The phenomenon was also captured by several publicly available cameras and by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), a sensor designed to detect electrical discharges that travels aboard the GOES-18 and GOES-19 satellites.
Although these instruments are primarily used to observe meteorological phenomena, they can also record very intense flashes produced by meteoroids that disintegrate upon entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The images of the object began to circulate shortly after the sighting. The local outlet Gulf Coast News Now published videos recorded from the Gulf Coast of Florida on Monday, showing an intense light streaking across the night sky.
In that first report, the media still described the phenomenon as a possible meteor before the results of the NASA analysis were released.
The specialized publication Starlust also collected testimonies from people who witnessed the phenomenon, some of whom described an extraordinarily bright flash and a luminous trail that remained visible for several seconds.
According to that outlet, the American Meteor Society received over 160 reports related to the event, including testimonies from Florida and Cuba.
Some observers claimed to have seen different colors in the glow, including shades of green, reddish, and bluish hues.
The difference between a meteor and a meteorite is important for understanding what happened. A meteor is the luminous phenomenon that occurs when a body from space enters the atmosphere.
A fragment is only designated as a meteorite if it survives its journey and reaches the Earth's surface.
In this case, NASA confirmed the disintegration of the object at high altitude and reported no impact on land or any material damage related to the phenomenon.
The phenomenon, while not extremely rare, is always an interesting occurrence.
In April 2021, numerous witnesses observed a meteor in the south of the state, after 10:00 PM.
On that occasion, the National Meteorological Service reported that the flash had also been detected by the GLM instrument of the GOES-16 satellite.
Another episode occurred in March 2019, when a large meteor was observed in northern Florida.
Numerous residents managed to capture the fireball on video, which remained visible for several seconds and was detected by meteorological instruments.
In February 2023, Miami-Dade residents also reported a fireball that streaked across the sky and apparently broke apart during its descent.
The episode was documented by local media, which attributed it to the entry of a meteor into the atmosphere.
Filed under: