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3 nights in a row, 3 fireballs, 3 meteorites...
For astronomers who did not know how to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tcheliabinsk event, sky deserves the best celebration we could even imagine! From February 13th, to 15th, 3 meteorite-dropper fireballs occured over France, Italy and Texas... and meteorites were recovered! Let's celebrate!
If you witnessed one of the mentioned events and/or if you have a video or a photo of one of them, please Submit an Official Fireball Report
If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read our Fireball FAQ.
Feb 13, 02h 59min UT - France: 2023 CX1 asteroid entry and meteorites in Normandy
First fireball of the series have ever been documented on the IMO website, as it's the 7th asteroid discovered prior its atmospheric entry. 2023 CX1 was discovered 7 hours before it entered the Earth atmosphere above the Channel on February 13th, 02h 59min UT, being widely observed and recorded by amateur and professional networks like FRIPON and UKMON. IMO/AMS Fireball report form received more than 70 reports (Event #937-2023) from France, Great-Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium (Figure 1).
Figure 1- Heatmap of visual witness that reported their observation of Feb. 13th, 2023, 02h 59min UT fireball to Vigie-Ciel/IMO/AMS (Event #937-2023). Blue arrow indicates the horizontal projection of the automatically calculated trajectory of the meteoroid in the atmosphere. Credit: IMO/AMS
Figure 2- Feb. 13th, 2023, 02h 59min UT fireball photographed from Le Mans (France) by David Legangneux. Credit: David Legangneux
Two days later, a team composed by professional and enthusiastic volunteers led by FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel found the first ~100g meteorite piece of what would lead to multiple recoveries (Figure 3). Up to today, more than 10 meteorites fragment shave been recovered, and research teams are going on looking for pieces of this 1-m diameter asteroid.
Figure 3- First meteorite coming from 2023 CX1 surrounding by the whole research team organised by the citizen science program Vigie-Ciel. Credit: FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel
Feb 14, 17h 58min UT - Italy: Saint-Valentin's day fireball and meteorites North of Matera
39 hours after this fireball, on February 14th, 17h 58min UT, another meteor enlighted the sky above Southern Italy. The fireball was widely observed from Italy, Croatia and Slovenia (Event #1009-2023) at the beginning of the evening (Figure 4). It was also recorded by 3 cameras of the PRISMA video network (Figure 5).
Figure 4- Heatmap of visual witness that reported their observation of Feb. 14th, 2023, 17h 58min UT fireball to PRISMA/IMO/AMS (Event #1009-2023). Blue arrow indicates the horizontal projection of the automatically calculated trajectory of the meteoroid in the atmosphere. Credit: IMO/AMS
Figure 5- February 14th, 17h 58min UT fireball captured by PRISMA/FRIPON video station in Castellanagrotte. Credit: PRISMA
Using this recordings, the meteorite strewn field was calculated by PRISMA and indicates a zone North of Matera, alerting medias and local population on February 15th. The same day, two brothers, Gianfranco and Pino Lossignore found pieces of what looks like meteorites landed on the balcony of their parents house (Figure 6): the 300 km/h falling rock even slightly damaged it! Numerous fragments have been recovered, the 12 bigger weighting 70 g in total. Researches are going on to try to find more fragments.
Figure 6- Pieces of meteorites recoveredd in Northern Matera, on a balcony. More than 70g of meteorites have been recovered in multiple fragments. Credit: PRISMA/INAF
Feb 15, 23h 22min UT - United States: McAllen fireball and meteorites in Southern Texas
Last but not least meteor of the series was observed in Southern Texas on February 15th, 2023, at 23h 22min UT by a few observers (Event #1036-2023) when, according to NASA, a 60-cm and 450-kg meteoroid entered the atmosphere (Figures 7 & 8).
Figure 7- Heatmap of visual witness that reported their observation of Feb. 15th, 2023, 23h 22min UT fireball to IMO/AMS (Event #1036-2023). Blue arrow indicates the horizontal projection of the automatically calculated trajectory of the meteoroid in the atmosphere. Credit: IMO/AMS
Figure 8- Fireball photographed from Texas. Twitter/@DanVitorPH
On February 18th, first meteorite fragment was recovered (Figure 9).
Figure 9- 500 to 600 g meteorite found by Robert Ward in Southern Texas. Credit: Robert Ward
Fireball, Bolide?
Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.
Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about one fireball of magnitude -6 (crescent moon) or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 (Venus) can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.
