Space. A ‘very bright and fast’ meteor crossed the sky over Dijon on Wednesday morning
Dijon, Reims, Roanne, Eastbourne (England) … All these cities – and many others – witnessed the passage of an impressive meteor, in a north-south direction, early this Wednesday morning. In the city of the dukes, it was at 5:34 am that the cameras of the FRIPON network, responsible for monitoring the sky and detecting meteorite falls in France, immortalized the passage of the celestial object. Since then, those in charge of the network and those who are passionate about astronomy have been studying the first data recorded.
Among them, Vincent Boudon, president of the Astronomical Society of Burgundy who quickly shared, on social networks, the images created by the FRIPON cameras.
Contacted at the end of the morning, Vincent Boudon was able to start to paint us the portrait of the racing car. “We know that it is a meteor that has come from far away, at least 130 astronomical units, ie 130 times the Earth – Sun distance (approximately 19,447,723,191 km, Editor’s note)”, begins the president of the SAB.
The meteor probably disintegrated before making landfall
Moreover, its estimated trajectory suggests that the car was going very fast, around 70 kilometers per second. “It’s part of the high speed range for this type of object. In general, they go between 11 and 80 km per second, ”explains Vincent Boudon. A speed and a trajectory that seem to rule out the possibility of the car falling to the ground. “There is a very good chance that it has disintegrated in the sky.”
Finally, the car was extremely bright. Its “ magnitude ” has in fact since been estimated at -9 on a scale ranging, to be seen on the ground, from -1 (not very bright) to -12 (extremely bright). What makes Vincent Boudon say that those who were outside “necessarily saw the time even if its passage must not have lasted more than 2 or 3 seconds”. However, it is still too early to say how big this object was.
A call for contributions
For this question on the size of the time but also to answer a complete and precise report on the passage of this racing car, any person having seen it or having photos and / or is invited to testify on the Vigie-ciel website.
If you witnessed the passage of this meteor, do not hesitate to send us your photos or videos on [email protected]