The Valentine’s fireball that lit up the skies of Puglia and Basilicata yesterday evening would have been generated by the entry into the atmosphere of a celestial body with a mass of about 2.5 kilograms, which would have traveled following a trajectory that goes from Bari to Matera : this is what emerges from the first analyzes conducted by the experts of Prisma, the First Italian Network for the Study of Meteors and the Atmosphere of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF).
The phenomenon, reported by many people on social networks, was also documented by three of the over 60 fish-eye cameras of the Prisma network scattered throughout the country: these are those located in Castellana Grotte, Tricase and Vasto, which allowed to establish the exact moment of the passage of the celestial body, at 18:58. In particular, the Castellana Grotte camera recorded the crossing of the sky by a very bright trail.
“The very first estimates favor a trajectory of the racing car that goes from Bari to Matera”, explain the experts, who are already at work refining the calculations and estimating both the area of origin of the celestial object (generally racing cars have a asteroidal origin which can be traced back to the main belt located between Mars and Jupiter) and the eventual fall area of the meteorite. Considering that the first estimates indicate an initial mass of the celestial body equal to 2.5 kilograms upon entry into the atmosphere, it is probable that not all the material disintegrated and that something survived, falling to the ground in the form of a meteorite which could weigh about 200 grams.
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
