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Thursday, December 3, 2020

Daylight fireball over upper New York

From NASA-

At 12:08 p.m. Wednesday, a large meteoroid entered Earth’s atmosphere over upper New York, between Rochester and Syracuse. Traveling westward at 56,000 miles per hour, it broke into pieces at an altitude of approximately 22 miles, producing a bright flash seen by the public and cameras in the area. The shock waves from the disruption also produced “booms” heard by many in the area. Unfortunately only one video of the actual meteor has surfaced, so it is currently not possible to establish an orbit for this object; the slow speed suggests an asteroidal origin.
The fireball was bright enough to be detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper onboard the GOES 16 weather satellite. An image showing this detection is attached. The ground track of the event is also attached, overlaid with the satellite detection.