Another large fireball was seen in Brazilian skies at 20:08 (23:08 UT) this Friday, April 26. This time, the phenomenon occurred in the north of Rio de Janeiro and east of Minas Gerais. The fireball was recorded by a BRAMON meteor station in Juiz de Fora, MG and a few minutes later, reported by several people through social networks.
Around 11 pm, BRAMON had access to a post published by Carlos Ayres, of CARJ – Club of Astronomy of Rio de Janeiro where he reports the observation of a very bright meteor north of Rio de Janeiro going from west to east. At that moment, the meteor had already been perceived at the BRAMON MHS1 / MG station in Juiz de Fora, managed by Marco Aurélio Salgado. The report published by Carlos indicated that this was a relevant event.
From a contact with BRAMON’s partner Clima Ao Vivo, it was noticed that the meteor was also recorded by other 3 Live Weather cameras in São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The Clima ao Vivo has several cameras in Brazil to monitoring sky for meteorological purposes. And on Friday (26), three of them recorded the meteor. One from Belo Horizonte – MG, another from Lagoa da Prata – MG and another from Morro Agudo – SP. The videos were cordially provided for analysis of the phenomenon and below, the results are presented:
From the triangulation of the images of the Clima ao Vivo and BRAMON, it was possible to determine with precision the trajectory of the fireball. The object that surprised people in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais on the night of the 26th appeared in the sky at 20:08:01 (local time) at 80.8Km height over Rio das Flores, RJ and followed in a northeasterly direction at a speed of 19.14 Km/s (68900 Km/h) and has extinguished 5.67 seconds later, at 38.4 Km height over the Argirita in the east of Minas Gerais.
It has not been possible to conclude whether this event may have left meteorites on the ground. If so, its dispersion area should be quite broad between the municipalities of Juiz de Fora and Leopoldina.
If you have seen, filmed or photographed this or another meteor, you can contribute to the study of these phenomena by sending your report through http://bramon.imo.net. The form is simple and easy to fill out and your data is kept confidential.
