Fireball, 4 April 2022
On 4 April 2022 at 00:30 UTC, sensors detected a fireball above 3.2°S, 64.3°W, 31.5 km up. It released energy equal to about 0.092 kilotons of TNT.
The numbers
- Date and time (UTC)
- 4 April 2022, 00:30
- Location
- 3.2°S, 64.3°W
- Height at peak brightness
- 31.5 km
- Speed
- 19.7 km/s (70,920 km/h)
- Light energy radiated
- 2.6 × 10¹⁰ joules
- Estimated total energy
- 0.092 kilotons of TNT
What does that mean?
That is a small 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 1.1 metres across and weighed around 2 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.
Saw a bright fireball yourself? Report what you saw.