Material from outer space is constantly entering the Earth’s atmosphere, but very few of it is worthy of mentioning. We’re happy to conclude that the event from Wednesday evening (January 20) is one of those exceptions. Japanese residents are used to mysterious shiny objects that fall from the sky, as another imposing fireball visited the country’s sky last year in November.
But the star of the show this time is the huge and dazzling fireball that the Japanese people saw flying over their country several days ago, as asahi.com writes.
The fireball was visible on Tokyo’s western sky
The fireball appeared at about 8:30 pm, and it shined brightly for over five seconds at the magnitude of minus 10. This means that the meteor became almost as bright as the Moon. Behold some relevant images from YouTuber NewzTech20:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqZwqfdJeNk&ab_channel=NewzTech20
The same YouTuber writes:
Large fireball was seen flowing down over a wide area such as Kanto and Kinki. Experts analyze that it is a phenomenon called a “fireball” that glows when fragments of asteroids burn out in the atmosphere. After 8:30 pm on the 20th, there was a series of sightings on SNS that something like a ball of light flowed down the sky in the Tokai and Kinki regions, mainly in the Kanto region.
The spectacular event was captured by a camera mounted by The Asahi Shimbun at the University of Tokyo’s Kiso Observatory in Nagano Prefecture.
A report sent to the Sonotaco Network meteor observation that’s operated by sky watchers reveals that the shiny fireball traveled from south to north and above Yamanashi Prefecture.
Fortunately, there’s no use worrying about any damages caused. The fireball likely burned up in the atmosphere, which means that there are few chances of any remnants falling on the ground.
