Published on Sep 28, 2013
Last night, a meteor exploded in the skies above the US midwest. Witnesses report shadows cast upon the ground, unusual sounds, and a swirling contrail marking the aftermath of the blast. A NASA all-sky camera in Hiram, Ohio, recorded the fireball at 11:33 pm EDT: 

”This was a very bright event,” reported Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “Flares saturated our meteor cameras, and made determination of the end point (the terminus of the fireball’s flight through the atmosphere) virtually impossible. Judging from the brightness, we are dealing with a meter-class object.”

Data from multiple cameras shows that the meteoroid hit Earth’s atmosphere traveling 51 km/s (114,000 mph) and passed almost directly over Columbus, Ohio. Cooke has prepared a preliminary map of the ground track. According to the American Meteor Society, the fireball was visible from at least 14 US states. The meteor is estimated to have exploded 41 miles directly above Columbus, Ohio.

Members of the CAA, at the club’s Letha House Park observing site near Spencer, Ohio, also saw the event. Observatory Director Jay Reynolds recounted the sight: “[Others] were observing in the parking lot, I was in the observatory reviewing photos I had taken when the observatory grew from darkness to BRIGHT in half a second! [It was] initially white, then green, then FLASH as if someone took a photo. As we looked, Capricorn now had a large glowing scar running 15-20 degrees horizontally across, running through it. The smoke trail was so bright, it too, may have been able to cast a shadow in the first second after it’s flashy birth, slowly fading, taking nearly a minute to disappear.”