Fireball, 14 September 2022
On 14 September 2022 at 23:31 UTC, sensors detected a fireball above 40.8°N, 63.4°E, 35.8 km up. It released energy equal to about 0.094 kilotons of TNT.
The numbers
- Date and time (UTC)
- 14 September 2022, 23:31
- Location
- 40.8°N, 63.4°E
- Height at peak brightness
- 35.8 km
- Speed
- 17.4 km/s (62,640 km/h)
- Light energy radiated
- 2.65 × 10¹⁰ joules
- Estimated total energy
- 0.094 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 1.2 metres across and weighed around 2.6 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
- Uchkuduk L6, Uzbekistan · 130 km away
- Kabakly H4, Turkmenistan · 137 km away
- Bukhara CV3, Uzbekistan · 152 km away
Saw a bright fireball yourself? Report what you saw.