A spectacular fireball lit up the night sky in Central Europe on Saturday night. The celestial body, weighing about 120 kilograms, entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 2:10 AM and began to glow at an altitude of about 90 kilometers above the town of Zanitzen (Murtal district, Styria). At that time, it was moving at a speed of just over 18 kilometers per second and continued to fly south. The celestial body shone like a fireball for about 5.5 seconds over a distance of almost 83 kilometers.
According to expert Ludovic Ferrière of the Natural History Museum (NHM), the meteor may not have burned up completely. Czech astronomers assume that parts of it have reached the bottom in Carinthia.
Using photo and video recordings from 17 stations of the European fireball observation network, researchers at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences were able to not only accurately describe the meteor’s orbit through the atmosphere, but also obtain information about its composition. Accordingly, it was a stone meteorite.
The fireball was also captured by a series of specialized meteor cameras from the AllSky7 fireball network and the FRIPON (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network) meteor observation network, explains Ferrière, curator of the NHM meteorite collection.
At 2:10 a.m., the meteor could be seen in Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Italy.
Most of the original material may have burned in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, Czech astronomers assume that “quite a lot” of material could have reached the Earth’s surface. They identified the area in which fragments of the original body, weighing up to several kilograms, could be found: it is a narrow strip between the town of Eis in the municipality of Ruden and Draurain (district of Völkermarkt) in Carinthia.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
