space . A ‘bright, very fast’ meteor crossed the sky over Dijon on Wednesday morning

Dijon, Reims, Rouen, Eastbourne (England) … All these cities – and many others – saw an impressive meteor pass, moving in a north-south direction, early on Wednesday morning. In the city of the Dukes, at 5:34 am, the cameras of the Fribune network, which are responsible for observing the sky and detecting the fall of the meteor in France, immortalized the passage of the celestial body. Since then, network administrators and astronomy enthusiasts have been researching the first data collected.

Among them, Vincent Beaudon, President of the Astronomical Society of Burgundy, who quickly shared, on social networks, the photos taken by the Fribune cameras.

Vincent Beaudon was contacted at the end of the morning, and he was able to begin painting a picture of the race car. “We know it is a meteorite coming from very far away, at least 130 AU, which is 130 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun (~19,447,723.191 km, editor’s note),” the SAB chief began.

The meteorite may have disintegrated before it reached land

Moreover, its estimated trajectory indicates that the car was traveling at a very fast speed, about 70 kilometers per second. “It’s part of the high speed range of this type of object. Generally, they travel between 11 and 80 km per second,” explains Vincent Beaudon. Speed ​​and trajectory seem to rule out the possibility of the car falling to the ground. “There is a very good chance that it has decomposed into the sky.”

Finally, the car was super bright. Its magnitude is actually -9 on a scale that ranges, visible from Earth, from -1 (not very bright) to -12 (extremely bright). What caused Vincent Beaudon to say that those who were outside “necessarily saw the meteor even if its passage lasted no more than two or three seconds”. However, it is still too early to determine the size of this object.

Call for contributions

To answer this question about the size of a meteorite but also to create a complete and accurate report on the passage of that meteorite, anyone who has seen it or has photos and/or videos is invited to testify on the Vigie-ciel website.

If you witnessed the passage of this meteorite, feel free to send us your photos or videos at [email protected]