Bright fireball explodes over Tokyo, sonic boom reported, Japan
A bright fireball streaked across Japan's capital Tokyo at 17:32 UTC on July 1, 2020 (02:32 JST, July 2). Many people reported hearing a sonic boom minutes after the meteor exploded, which is considered rare, according to the National Astronomical Observatory.
Daichi Fujii, a curator at Hiratsuka City Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, caught the spectacular phenomenon with a camera installed at his home. The fireball traveled from west to east.
Many residents reported hearing a sonic boom minutes after the fireball exploded.
"A few minutes later, I heard a roar that could be heard indoors, which may be relevant," one of the locals said.
"I thought a person living [in the condo] above knocked down a shelf," one Twitter user wrote.
"I thought my child sleeping on the second floor fell out of bed," another one posted. Other residents said the explosion sounded like a thunder.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced at a national press conference that authorities are gathering information about the event, adding that no damage has been reported so far.
The National Astronomical Observatory said it is rare for witnesses to hear anything after a fireball event.
"One station of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation was almost 1 150 km (715 miles) away from the event but in its waveforms a signature of the fireball could be identified," International Meteor Organization's Theresa Ott and Esther Drolshagen noted.
"We were able to calculate source energy of the entering asteroid of about 150 t TNT. With an assumed velocity of 14 km/s and a density of 3000 kg/m3 the size would be around 1.6 m (5.2 feet), with a mass of about 1.6 t."
Featured image credit: KAGAYASTUDIO/YouTube
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Just a few days after International Asteroid Day! (30 JUN) We’ve now got equipment and methods of detection, and of mitigation, for the potential impact threat – it’s just that, nobody real cares.
This is just another sign of the end times, get rapture ready, people: give your life to JESUS CHRIST while there is still time judgement is coming soon, we are on the brink of the 7year Tribulation! Listen to Dr. Ron Rhodes, Dr. David Reagan and Dr. John Ankerberg!
An object of this size would be expected to break up somewhee in the earths atmosphere approximately once every 1.5 – 2 years. So this is a fairly common phenomena, with the only unusual part being that it was over such a densely populated area.