Fireball, 22 December 2020
On 22 December 2020 at 23:23 UTC, sensors detected a fireball above 31.9°N, 96.2°E, 35.5 km up. It released energy equal to about 12 kilotons of TNT.
The numbers
- Date and time (UTC)
- 22 December 2020, 23:23
- Location
- 31.9°N, 96.2°E
- Height at peak brightness
- 35.5 km
- Speed
- 13.6 km/s (48,960 km/h)
- Light energy radiated
- 667 × 10¹⁰ joules
- Estimated total energy
- 12 kilotons of TNT
What does that mean?
That is a large burst by fireball standards: the Chelyabinsk fireball of 2013 released about 440 kilotons. If the object was stony rock entering at this speed, it was roughly 7 metres across and weighed around 540 tonnes.
Most objects of this kind break up and burn away high in the atmosphere, but larger ones can drop small meteorites. About 70% of Earth is ocean, so most fireballs like this fall into the sea.
Known meteorites nearest this point
- Mahadevpur H4/5, India · 472 km away
- Tulung Dzong Stone-uncl, China · 561 km away
- Dergaon H5, India · 623 km away
Saw a bright fireball yourself? Report what you saw.