A huge fireball shooting North to South over Arizona was widely observed and filmed on June 2nd, 2016, 10h57 UT, from Northern Utah to Western Texas and Southern California. More than 200 reports were sent to the IMO/AMS via the application form, leading to an automatic trajectory analysis that show the meteor started being observed above Kohls Ranch/Bear Flat, and followed a North-South trajectory in direction of the Salt River.
Credit: IMO/AMS
The fireball and the huge persistent train was photographed and filmed, showing a very bright meteor that lasted more than 5 seconds, lighting up the sky several times before disappearing. The bright persistent train survived several minutes, and twisted due to high altitude winds.
Here is a compilation of videos of the fireball and its persistent train:
This fireball, according to Bill Cooke (NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office), is the brightest ever recorded by the NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network. From first analysis, the small asteroid dimensions should range around 3 m diameter, and its maximal brightness peaks saturates all detectors, but its magnitude must have been close to -15.
UPDATE (29/06/2016) : meteorites have been recovered from this fireball. For more information, please have a look here!
