A pretty fireball was seen in the interior of the State of São Paulo in the late dawn of this Asteroid Day, June 30th. The meteor was recorded by 4 BRAMON cameras in Nhandeara and Patos de Minas, and also by at least 4 cameras from climaaovivo.com.br and Icaro Brasil Project. Check out the video below:

The fireball

According to preliminary analyzes, the meteor began to shine at 04:17 in the morning (07:17 UTC) on this 30th of June, at 84.6 km heigh above the municipality of Penápolis and went north-east at 16, 9 km/s (68840 km/h) until disappearing at 29.6 km heigh above the municipality of Urupês. Despite being quite luminous, the analyzes indicate that the bolide was generated by a small fragment of space rock with about 100 grams of mass and was completely vaporized while passing the atmospheric.

Preliminary fireball’s trajectory map – Credits: BRAMON

Asteroid Day

Coincidentally, this small and harmless meteoroid hit our atmosphere on International Asteroid Day, which is a date set by the United Nations General Assembly, celebrated on June 30 of each year and is intended to alert the population and authorities about the threat of catastrophic impact by an asteroid.

The date recalls the Tunguska Event, which took place in Siberia on June 30, 1908, when the impact of an asteroid destroyed eighty million trees in an area of two thousand square kilometers.

This year, due to the pandemic, presential activities were replaced by virtual events. And among the various lives organized by associations and astronomy groups from around the world, BRAMON will broadcast from 18:30 a live organized by the Canal Notícias Astronômicas with the participation of several speakers talking about the theme.