{"id":227253,"date":"2021-04-14T22:58:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T19:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/fireball-captured-passing-exceptionally-close-to-earth\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T22:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T19:58:56","slug":"fireball-captured-passing-exceptionally-close-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/fireball-captured-passing-exceptionally-close-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"#Fireball captured passing \u2018exceptionally close\u2019 to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Fireball captured passing \u2018exceptionally close\u2019 to Earth<\/strong>”
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Well, that was too close for comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fireball that streaked across the sky Monday was so close to Earth that the American Meteor Society received 259 reports<\/a> and nine videos of its celestial sprint. In Grand Bahama, residents didn\u2019t only see it, but heard a sonic boom, the Guardian reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBS12 reporter Jay O\u2019Brien was recording a Facebook<\/a> live story for the local news<\/a> outlet when he saw it race through the heavens and seemingly disapp<\/a>ear into a blaze of blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWOAH! Big flash and streak across sky in West Palm Beach. Happened moments ago while we were on Facebook Live,\u201d he tweeted<\/a>. \u201cWorking to figure out what it was.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

NASA astronomer Bill Cooke told the Palm Beach Post<\/a>, it was a nearly 900-pound asteroid fragment entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere at 38,000 mph and disintegrating 23 miles above the Atlantic. In the process of breaking apart, Cooke said, the meteor generated the energy equivalent of 14 tons of TNT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things just come at random,\u201d Cooke added. \u201cThe atmosphere will break apart anything smaller than a football field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meteor experts refer to Monday\u2019s fireball \u2014 which was documented by countless dashcams<\/a> and doorbell cameras<\/a> \u2014 as a \u201cbolide,\u201d referring to the fact that it explodes upon entry to Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Gianluca Masi, of VirtualTelescope.eu, told the publication it passed 12,430 miles from Earth\u2019s surface, which is considered \u201cexceptionally close.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a special type of fireball that ends with a large burst of light and often a boom sound,\u201d Mike Hankey, American Meteor Society operations manager, told the Palm Beach Post.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This particular one was actually quite small \u2014 about 2 feet in diameter \u2014 meaning it technically does not qualify as an asteroid, but rather only an asteroid fragment, or meteoroid.\n <\/p><\/div>\n