Bright bolide on 21st November 2024 over central Moravia

The fireball 20241121_012505 was recorded by the cameras of the CEMeNt network on November 21, 2024, at 01:25:05.3 ± 0.1 seconds UT. Within the CEMeNt (Central European Meteor Network), the fireball was captured by five wide-field cameras (Figures 1–5). The flight of the fireball was documented from the stations Valašské Meziříčí NW and W (CZ, Valašské Meziříčí Observatory), Ždánice E and N (CZ, Ždánice Observatory), and Jablonec N (SK, Jakub Kapuš).

Fig. 1: Summary image of fireball 20241121_012505, captured by the Valašské Meziříčí NW camera. Author: Valašské Meziříčí Observatory.

Fig. 2: Summary image of fireball 20241121_012505, captured by the Valašské Meziříčí W camera. Author: Valašské Meziříčí Observatory.

Fig. 3: Summary image of fireball 20241121_012505, captured by the Ždánice E camera. Author: Ždánice Observatory.

Fig. 4: Summary image of fireball 20241121_012505, captured by the Ždánice N camera. Author: Ždánice Observatory.

Fig. 5: Summary image of fireball 20241121_012505, captured by the Jablonec N camera. Author: Jakub Kapuš.

Atmospheric Trajectory, Radiant, and Heliocentric Orbit of the Fireball

For the calculation of the atmospheric trajectory of the fireball and the meteoroid’s orbit within the Solar System, recordings from the stations Valašské Meziříčí (NW and W), Ždánice (E and N), and Jablonec N were used. The data was captured using the UFO Capture software, analyzed with UFO Analyzer, and the atmospheric and heliocentric trajectories were computed using UFO Orbit software.

The projection of the beginning of the atmospheric trajectory was located east of the village of Vidče (CZ), south of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, with the meteor’s altitude at that point being 137.0 km above the Earth’s surface. The projection of the end of the atmospheric trajectory was located on the southern edge of Olomouc (CZ), with the meteor’s altitude at that point being 88.3 km above the Earth’s surface (Fig. 6).

The fireball reached an absolute brightness of -5.7 magnitude and, during its 1.2-second flight, traveled a distance of 80.7 km through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Fig. 6: 3D projection of the complete atmospheric trajectory of fireball 20241121_012505 onto the Earth's surface. Author: Jakub Koukal

Fig. 7: Projection of the trajectory of fireball 20241121_012505 within the Solar System onto the ecliptic plane, including the effect of deceleration. Author: Jakub Koukal

The object entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an almost ideal angle of 37.1°, with a pre-atmospheric velocity of 72.19 km/s. This was therefore a very fast fireball, with a geocentric velocity of 71.08 km/s. The object belonged to the Leonid meteor shower (IUA MDC 0013 LEO).

Before entering the atmosphere, the object traveled on an elongated retrograde orbit (Fig. 7) with a high eccentricity of e = 0.932, a steep inclination relative to the ecliptic plane of i = 163.56°, and a perihelion distance of q = 0.9872 AU. The object was of cometary origin, with its parent body being the long-period comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.