Spy Satellites Confirmed Our Discovery of the First Meteor from beyond the Solar System

On January 8, 2014, at 17:05:34 UT, an approximately meter-sized rock from space streaked through the sky, burning up with an energy equivalent to about 120 metric tons of TNT and raining debris into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Similar-sized fireballs are not uncommon occurrences in Earth's skies, and a few dozen of them occur each year. The fact that this particular meteorite was very fast and in a different direction than our planet suggested it came from outer space.

The only witnesses to the fireball were the sensors on the U.S. government satellite. Thanks to a partnership between the Department of Defense and NASA, the data describing the event eventually were shared on a public database hosted by the Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Dates, times, latitudes, altitudes, speeds, three-dimensional velocity components, and energies are included in the data for these events. The uncertainties for most of the measurements are not included in the database because they could potentially be exploited by adversaries.