Santa Filomena, Brazil
2 min read
Santa Filomena, Pernambuco, BRAZIL – August 19, 2020, 10:18 AM local time, a daytime fireball was observed moving west over the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
Reports spread quickly of meteorites raining on the small city of Santa Filomena, and within a few days, including a 2.8kg oriented nosecone, which fell onto the roof of a bar in the city center! Many other fragments have been found and there are likely many more waiting to be found!
| Entry Date/Time: | 08/19/2020 13:18:17.16 UTC |
| Location: | Santa Filomena, Pernambuco, Brazil |
| Reference Coordinates: | 8.173°S 40.544°W |
| Reference Altitude: | 20.9 km above sea level |
| Energy / Mass Estimate: | > 0.01kt / >300kg |
| Reference Speed: | 18.0 km/s |
| Bearing: | 264.9° W |
| Slope: | 47.3° from vertical |
| TKW: | >3kg recovered |
| Classification: | Chondrite, possibly L-type |
| Event Links: | Karmaka BRAMON NASA ARC Bolides |
Video and News
There were at least three videos recovered, that were useful in determining the trajectory of the meteor.
Search Efforts
This was a fairly large event and many fragments have already been found, so you can expect meteorite hunters to be actively searching the area for a few weeks. The meteorite material was classified as For additional pictures and detailed account of the search efforts, please visit Karmaka Meteorites. If you would like to join the search and future events in this region, please join the Facebook group:
StrewnLAB Search Area
A trajectory for this meteor was analyzed by BRAMON and run through the StrewnLAB software to predict a search area. Raymond Borges also provided our team with meteorite find data, which was helpful in verifying the trajectory and understanding the fragmentation profile. Please download and review the Google Earth files below for detailed maps of the search area.
Weather Data
The weather data below is sourced from weather balloons, and publicly available via NOAA’s Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). This data is downloaded and post-processed by the StrewnLAB algorithm, to account for changing weather patterns and weather balloon drift. The plots have altitude on the y-axis, in kilometers above sea level. The wind speed below 10km has large effect on the drift of meteorites.
The author and founder of Strewnify.com, an automotive controls engineer, with a passion for physics.
Hancock, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888
