Bolide over Dominican Republic
© YouTube/Frankie Lucena (screen capture)
On Feb. 21st, a small space rock hit Earth's atmosphere and exploded over the Caribbean. Although the impact did not occur directly over Puerto Rico, cameras there had no trouble seeing the explosion. Frankie Lucena recorded this footage from Cabo Rojo, PR:


"The sky lit up brightly when the meteor hit," says Lucena. "The flash came from the direction of the Dominican Republic."

Indeed, he continues, "the GOES16 Group Energy Density image shows that it exploded over the Dominican Republic at 07:30 UTC (Feb. 21st):

GOES16 Group Energy Density image shows that it exploded over the Dominican Republic
"There is a good chance of finding some meteorites on land in the Dominican Republic," says Lucena.

If more information about this event becomes available, we will post it here. Stay tuned.

Update: The fireball was so bright, many cameras recorded the flash. "One of our hurricane Nest cams in St. John USVI also captured the event," report Mark Sudduth and Brent Lynn from the US Virgin Islands. An all-sky camera operated by the Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe in Puerto Rico also saw it.