A fireball from space reported to have fallen on border between Uruguay and Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Wednesday, October 20, after 11:40 a.m., a “bolide” (technical term for a fast-moving fireball or meteorite) was reported to have crossed the northeastern border of Uruguay with Brazil, in the area of the town of Vichadero, in the region of Rivera, Uruguay.

This was detailed to Telemundo by the head of forecasts of the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet), Néstor Santayana, who also said that it has not yet been confirmed whether it was this phenomenon of “space debris”. So far, he said, it is not known if the “bolide” impacted the earth – on the Uruguayan or Brazilian side – or if it was consumed in the atmosphere.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Uruguay

According to what is known about this object, it is a “mass of cosmic matter” of dimensions “appreciable to the naked eye, which quickly crosses the atmosphere with the appearance of a flaming balloon and usually bursts and splits into pieces”.

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument, used in lightning monitoring, captured the entry of the space object that crossed the border region. For its part, the Brazilian meteorological company Metsul maintained that “for the satellite to have captured the space rock and produced a sonic noise and a glow in broad daylight, the bolide was likely large”.

According to this institution, the bolide exploded in the border area between Uruguay and Brazil, which would make it a meteorite.

“Many people report that it touched the ground and there was a tremor (officially not yet confirmed),” Santayana published in his social networks. And then he added: “Due to satellite parallax error, in the case that it precipitated, it could have occurred in southern Brazil. We are waiting for confirmation if it is a meteorite or space debris.”

According to information from El País of Uruguay, several people reported that from Rivera, Salto, Cerro Largo, and Tacuarembó, a loud noise was heard. Other neighbors also reported seeing flashes in the sky and feeling a tremor.

In this sense, Leda Sánchez, professor of the Faculty of Sciences and coordinator of the Geophysical Observatory of Uruguay, said to this media, “the breakage of windows or similar that have been reported may have been due to the vibrations generated by the bolide when it enters the atmosphere”.