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Meteor fireball streaks across Guadalajara, Mexico night sky on January 29

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A fireball was spotted streaking across the sky above Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, on the morning of Wednesday, January 29.

Footage from Webcams de Mexico shows the bright object shooting over Jalisco's state capital.

According to the American Meteor Society (AMS), meteors were expected to be visible from January 25 to January 31.


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Meteor fireball lights up sky over South Island, New Zealand on January 31

Photographer John Wekking captured
Photographer John Wekking captured "a brilliant fireball, overhead last night (31 January), 23:07hrs as captured by my aurora camera. North at the bottom."
People in the South Island have witnessed a fireball break through the atmosphere near Wānaka with a loud sonic boom.

The meteoroid became a fireball and raced above Queenstown about 11pm on Friday, before burning out over Southland.

Fireballs Aotearoa, a group interested in meteorites, said a sonic boom was widely reported as the object came in overhead.

Although most of its mass burned up in the fireball stage, it was believed a small meteorite may have landed in a remote portion of the Eyre Mountains in northern Southland.

Fireballs Aotearoa are on the hunt for it and believe it may have landed in the Eyre Mountains in Southland.


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Bright meteor fireball lit up Uruguay and Argentina on February 1

Fireball seen over Rio de La Plata, Argentina and Uruguay on February 2, 2025. I
© Diario HoyFireball seen over Rio de La Plata, Argentina and Uruguay on February 2, 2025. I
A very bright fireball exploded over the skies of the Río de la Plata area at around 01:15 UTC on February 2, 2025, creating a spectacular display for people of both Uruguay and Argentina.

A very bright fireball exploded over the Rio de La Plata, Argentina at approximately 01:15 UTC on February 2 (22:15 local time on February 1). The Rio de La Plata area, situated south of Uruguay, shares a coastline with Argentina.

Social media reports indicate that the fireball had a green trail, which suggests the presence of magnesium.


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Meteor fireball over Ontario on January 28

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© Gary Trott
We received 5 reports about a fireball seen over Ontario on Tuesday, January 28th 2025 around 08:54 UT.

For this event, we received one video.


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Meteor fireball over Maryland and other states on February 1

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© Shutterstock/Triff
We received 9 reports about a fireball seen over MD, NJ, NY, Ontario, PA and Pennsylvania on Saturday, February 1st 2025 around 08:44 UT.

For this event, we received one video.


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Meteor fireball over Ohio and other states on January 29

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© Ryan C.
We received 27 reports about a fireball seen over IL, IN, Indiana, KY, MI, Michigan, OH, Ohio, Ontario, PA and Pennsylvania on Wednesday, January 29th 2025 around 05:32 UT.

For this event, we received one video and one photo.


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Newly discovered asteroid has slight chance of Earth impact in 2032

The discovery marks only the second time that an asteroid's impact risk has reached greater than a 1% chance.
Risk Corridor
© Daniel BambergerThe "risk corridor" (in red) outlines possible places where the newly discovered asteroid might impact, given current observations. Note that the impact chance currently stands at about 1%, and further observations are needed to refine the object's orbit.
Astronomers — professional and amateur alike — have turned their attention to an asteroid with a slight chance of impacting Earth in 2032, based on current observations. While the possibility is slim, and more observations are needed, the object itself might be large enough to devastate a city, motivating follow-up observations as well as archival searches for pre-discovery observations.

The asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, was first noticed on December 27, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS); searches quickly revealed that ATLAS had already imaged it two days earlier. Then, as observations accumulated, astronomers could roughly determine its orbit. That's when the realization dawned: The object has some chance of striking Earth.

On Monday, January 27th, NASA's Sentry impact-tracking system officially raised the asteroid to a level 3 on the Torino scale. This is only the second time that an asteroid has merited a rating greater than 2 on the 10-point Torino scale, created in 1999 to convey the risk of an impact. At this level, an object has more than 1% chance of striking Earth.

Only one other object, asteroid 99942 Apophis, discovered in 2004, has ever reached that high on the scale. That asteroid peaked at 4, with a possibility of impact in 2029. But additional observations soon ruled that out, sending it back to a Torino rating of 0 — meaning no possible impact within the next century.

The chance of impact for 2024 YR4 is still slim: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimates 1.2%. But if it does happen, German astronomer Daniel Bamberger (Northolt Branch Observatories) has used observations in hand to constrain the possible impact in time and location: The impact would take place on December 22, 2032, somewhere along a long line that extends from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico, through Ecuador and northern South America, across the Atlantic, through central Africa (from Kenya to Somalia), and then across to northern India.

The possible impact track covers big stretches of ocean as well as populated areas and some large cities. "I'd be really excited to see an impact," Bamberger says, "but I don't want it to be this one. Something over Antarctica, please!"

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Meteor fireball sighted over Puerto Rico on January 25

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A meteor was observed last night from all of Puerto Rico, as well as from much of the Dominican Republic, at approximately 7:05 pm.

"It was a space rock measuring between one and four meters in diameter, and the sighting lasted several seconds, so it could be seen by a large number of people," said Eddie Irizarry, vice president of the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC).

The educational institution happened to be holding an observation night in Cabo Rojo, which was attended by about 1,200 people. "The bright meteor caused a great commotion and because the sighting lasted a reasonable amount of time, those who were looking elsewhere managed to turn around and see the impressive fireball," the organization said.


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Stunning meteor fireball over southern Spain (Jan 24)

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This stunning bolide was spotted from Spain on January 24, at 7:20 local time (equivalent to 6:20 universal time). It was almost as bright as the full Moon. The fireball was observed by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses, who reported it on social networks.

The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 114,000 km/h. The fireball overflew southern Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. It began at an altitude of about 100 km over Fuente la Sabina (province of Albacete), moved southeast, overflew the region of Murcia and the south of the province of Alicante, and finally ended at a height of around 40 km over the Mediterranean Sea.

This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, Marçà (Tarragona), and Otura (Granada). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC). Its code in the SWEMN database is: SWEMN20250124_062019.


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Meteor fireball over Kansas and Missouri on January 25

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© Shutterstock/Triff
We received 5 reports about a fireball seen over KS and MO on Saturday, January 25th 2025 around 03:23 UT.

For this event, we received one video.