Meteoro was seen in most of the Kanto region, in the early hours of the last Thursday morning (2). According to estimates, it measured 1.5 meters in diameter and weighed 5.5 tons
Note updated at 2:40 pm on July 6, with new information on the size and weight of the meteor
An incredibly bright fireball was seen crossing the Tquiona sky last Thursday (02), before exploding in the atmosphere with a force equivalent to 150 tons of TNT. Observers report a glowing fireball, which lit the sky with purple-green light, followed by a crash that was probably a single noise generated when an object breaks the sound barrier.
The event took place at 02:32 in the morning (local time, 14:32 on the 1st of July in Brasilia time), and was visible in most of the Kanto region, which in addition to the capital includes the prefectures of Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.
According to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), the object was a meteor about 1.5 meters in diameter, which entered the atmosphere at 15 km / s (54 thousand km / h) and weighed 5.5 tons. The explosion was strong enough to be recorded by infrasound monitoring stations, created to detect nuclear tests, more than 2,000 km away.
#Fireball in news, sighted by many living in #Tokyo, JapanŸ ‡ Ÿ ‡ 1st July 2020 ~ 17:30 GMT, detected acoustically by #IMS Infrasound stations I45RU & I44RU at distances of approximately 1100km & 2300km, respectively. Latest signal enhancement techniques used by #IDC in analysis: pic.twitter.com/vhqHWhlWWg
– Lassina Zerbo (@SinaZerbo) July 3, 2020
As the meteor exploded at a high altitude, there is no record of damage. Despite being brilliant, the rock that caused the phenomenon can be considered “small”. For comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which caused destruction in Russia in 2013, was 10 to 20 times larger.
Source: CNet
Astronomy Tokyo Japan meteor Science & Space