First fireball of 2018

By Richard Kacerek

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The first fireball of 2018 was captured by three UKMON cameras in the early hours on 19 January 2018. It was a sporadic fireball meteor with an interesting explosion, reaching -7 magnitude. Orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

Ash Vale

Clanfield

Clanfield NE camera operated by Hampshire Astronomical Group managed to catch the beginning of the fireball.

Wilcot

Summary

The fireball was a Sporadic type, not associated with any known meteor showers. The interesting double explosion in the middle of the trajectory is quite usual for hard asteroidal material, matching orbit puts the fireball origins between Mars and Jupiter.

Ground Map

The fireball entered the atmosphere at the height of 88.7km and speed of 18.2km/s and travelled ground distance of 55.2km where it stopped burning at 39.6km above the ground.

Orbit

Radiant