The sighting from the Castellana Caves Astronomical Observatory
A bright trail and a roar. A great deal of fear, but also a great deal of surprise, arose as the fireball streaked across the sky around 7:00 PM last night. The sighting was reported to the Prisma network, which has one of its eyes at the Castellana Caves Astronomical Observatory.
There were numerous reports of the fireball (a particularly bright meteor) that crossed the skies of Puglia and Basilicata yesterday, February 14th, in the late afternoon. This event, which made Valentine's Day a different experience, was reported to the Prisma network, the network coordinated by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) for the monitoring of meteors and atmospheric phenomena.
Prisma's optical surveillance cameras, about sixty fish-eye cameras, are scattered throughout the country. Three of them, the one at the "Sirio" Astronomical Observatory in the Castellana Caves, along with those in Tricase and Vasto, have allowed us to establish the exact moment of the passage of the celestial body: at 17:58 minutes and 30 seconds UT (universal time), and therefore 18:58 minutes and 30 seconds Italian time.
The Castellana Caves camera photographed the bolide crossing on a trajectory toward Matera. Initial assessments also indicate an initial mass of the celestial body of 2,5 kg upon entry into the atmosphere and the mass of any meteorite equal to approximately 200 grams.
