American Meteor Society receives over 500 reports of Chelyabinsk-like event over U.S. Midwest, 26 December 2013 -- Fire in the Sky -- Sott.net

Over 500 reports were sent in to the American Meteor Society website concerning a major fireball event (possibly two) over the U.S. Midwest on December 26th, 2013.

The AMS has received over 460 reports so far about a fireball over the border of Iowa and Minnesota. (Dec. 26th) around 5:35pm central time.

Witnessed described a fireball as bright as the Sun that fragmented into many parts. Several witnesses reported sonic effects associated with the meteors including at least three reports of delayed booms.

Below is an estimated trajectory of the fireball based on witness reports based on two different algorithms. (RA: 205.72714158 / 13:42 - DEC: -2.72008690)

With 620+ witness reports after only 14 hours, this event is already the 5th most reported fireball in the history of the AMS online reporting system.

If you saw this meteor please fill out an official fireball report here.

Here is the current heat map for the event that shows where the witnesses reported from. Click the map below to review the event map and witness reports for this fireball.

Video #1: Christina Erbe, Communications Specialist, City of North Liberty, Iowa

Video #2: Tim Cline, Sandia Sentinel All-Sky Network

Latitude = 41:05:13.650N - Longitude = 93:15:14.911W

Video #3: Fireball over Kansas, Missouri, caught on Missouri State patrol dashcam near Sedalia, Missouri

Video #4: Fireball recorded while driving through Iowa, USA. Uploaded to YT 27 December 2013 by Andrey Anisimov

Reader Comments

sass · 2013-12-28T20:10:58Z

Why is it called a companion star? Is this just because it is of the same stuff as our sun is made of?

rbateman · 2013-12-29T02:16:29Z

It's called a 'companion star' because stars are not solo objects, by nature.
Think of couples. Marriage.
The exception would be a hermit, or other sort of individual.
This binary commonplace arrangement holds true to the greatest distances to which stellar orbit can be ascertained.
Our own star should also have a companion, else it is a rare eccentric.
So stars don't like to be alone, not unlike humans and animals, etc.
Are they alive? Hmmm.....

sass · 2013-12-31T14:27:25Z

Thanks, I kind of understand. Just that, they have rather different orbits, they don't seem to travel together as a couple. But I know little about it. I'll go look it up. Thanks though.

gdpetti · 2013-12-29T12:30:14Z

Hmm.

Seemed to have happened right over me, no wonder I missed it. Why aren't these events better advertised?

bentpenny · 2013-12-30T05:53:26Z

re: Hmm

Because the Media is now censored by the government, There was a similar meteor explosion over the Mid-South earlier this year, seen and heard from 3 states, but not a word of it was heard from ANY news broadcast.