On October 4, 2017 around 8:07 PM local time, an extremely bright meteoroid fell over the northern Yunnan province of China, reaching maximum brightness roughly above the ground. The 8-second superbolide was widely recorded, as it fell in the late evening on the Mid-Autumn Festival, a fairly popular festival in China.

Overview

Based on its incoming velocity of and energy, the original asteroid was likely between across, slightly smaller than the 2015 Thailand bolide, which fell about 2 years previously, several hundred miles to the south.

2017 China bolide

This is the largest recorded meteor to fall over China since the 2000 bolide, which radiated about of energy compared to the 2017 event's . While it was only the 5th most energetic impact event of 2017, it was the largest one to occur over land, and a populated area no less.

2017 China bolide

References

2017 in China

Modern Earth impact events

Meteoroids

2017 in space

October 2017 events in China

21st-century astronomical events

2017 China bolide