2023/06/25 by Peter Brown, Jiří Borovička, Brown, Peter G. +1 · 4 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2306.14267
openalex publication_date 2023/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A critical review of the evidence for the interstellar origin for the USG 20140108 fireball is presented. Examining USG fireball velocities where independent data are available shows the former to have significant (10-15 km/s) uncertainties at large speeds and highly variable radiant accuracy, with average errors in excess of ten degrees. Ablation model fits to the observed lightcurve are possible for normal chondritic impactors only assuming low speeds. To match the high speed and low fragmentation height of the USG 20140108 fireball would require a high density/strength object with low drag and highly aerodynamic shape not made of iron. We suggest the simpliest explanation for the unusual characteristics of USG 20140108 is that the speed, in particular, is substantially overestimated.