The International Meteor Organization has released a report on the causes of the natural phenomenon in the form of a bright flash observed in Kyiv on April 19. This is stated in the report of the organization on the official website.
“The citizens of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which is under occasional attacks by Russian rockets, were frightened by a bright flash on the sky in the evening of April 19, 2023. Although it was not immediately clear, the flash was a purely natural phenomenon this time, namely a very bright bolide (a large meteorite - ed.)," said the statement.
A part of the bolide, which started at 18:57:20 UT and lasted for 5 seconds, was recorded from a large distance by the easternmost cameras of the European Fireball Network (EN). EN is a project of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences operated in Slovakia in collaboration with the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The beginning of the bolide was captured by the camera located in Bardos Lajos Primary School in Fehergyarmat, Hungary, belonging to the private AllSky7 project and operated by Krisztian Sarneczky and Zoltan Pasztor.
After analyzing the videos, the trajectory of the bolide was determined with an error of only a few hundred meters. The glow of the meteor began at the height of 98 km above Velyka Dymerka, Brovary District, Kyiv Region. Then it passed directly over Kyiv at an altitude of about 80 km and continued southwest at a speed of 29 km per second.
The meteoroid of an estimated initial mass of 200 – 300 kg (diameter of about half meter) disrupted at 38 km into many fragments and dust.
The researchers add that the deceleration of the bolide after the flare suggests that the largest produced fragments had masses below 1 kg. Nevertheless, another similarly bright flare occurred at the height of 32.5 km and other smaller flares followed at 31, 30, and 29.5 km.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, northern lights were observed in Ukraine. Incredible photos and videos of a rare atmospheric phenomenon appeared on the network.
On April 19, the Kyiv City Military Administration announced the fall of NASA's space satellite to Earth.
Meanwhile, social networks exploded with hundreds of memes due to a bright flash over Kyiv. The Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that according to preliminary information, flashes over Kyiv at about 10.30 p.m. were associated with the fall of a satellite or meteorite.
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