A bright fireball over the state of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

On June, 7th, 2019, around 01h33m (UT), inhabitantsfrom Brazil (mainly in the Southern Region states), Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay observed a very bright fireball which was also recorded by two meteor monitoring stations of BRAMON. The fireball entered in the atmosphere with a velocity of 14.3 km/s at an altitude of 104 km over the south of Paraguay, travelling 393 km until reaching its dark flight at an altitude of 27.4 km over the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The calculated energy corresponds to an entry mass between 3.25 × 103 kg and 5.75 × 103 kg (this corresponds to a meteoroid with a diameter of 1.2 m to 1.4 m). It is believed that about 10% of the original mass reached the ground. The shallow trajectory created a large meteorite strewn field that could extend from the cities of Jari to Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Teams conducted a meteorite search in the area, with no success so far.