Bad Astronomy

Swedish meteorball

I’m getting reports (here (with pictures) and here (translated through Google) and here (also translated)) that a pretty big fireball was seen over Sweden last night. A video showed up on YouTube and it’s impressive:

This meteor may have actually dropped debris all the way to the ground (I doubt it hit intact, but instead disintegrated high in the atmosphere). Despite how bright these events are, tracing just where a meteorite impacted can be difficult, so the more observers the better. If you saw this event, report it to the International Meteor Organization! You might help scientists understand this object better, and it might even lead to finding meteorites, as it did in Canada in November.

Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to BABloggees Tobias Wulff and Mikael Pettersson.