Bright meteor, 8pm on 9th Jan 2023

[Rick]

There was a bright long meteor around 8pm on 9th January. UKMon came up with the following analysis:

https://archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2023/orbits/202301/20230109/20230109_200123.491_UK/index.html

On twitter the Met Office spawned a thread with quite a few videos:

https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1612543593771851776

[Dave A]

Great images of the meteor Rick

Begs the question- I wonder how many of these Meteorites of this size fall to earth every year, are they common- if they were then surely CCTV which seems to be everywhere in the UK would pick them up and there would be more of these same stories.

Perhaps, the Meteor can be tracked to where it landed and fragments can be found- remember a couple of years ago where fragments of a large Meteor were found on someone's driveway at their house.  I believe there is a dedicated system for tracking the locations accurately.
 

[Rick]

The Global Meteor Network, of which UKMon is part, has sensitive cameras around the world, and other similar organisations do likewise, but still only cover a small fraction of the skies. The UK skies are well covered by caneras, but they still only catch a very few meteors with meteorite potential each year. Almost all meteors, this one included, burn up completely.

[Hugh]

Wow!  Lots of info in that link Rick; but interesting about the height at which they are ~ always higher than you might expect.

Keep them coming Rick.

- Hugh