Brilliant Fireball Over Northern Italy 8 April 2022

78 reports from 5 countries in Europe

The International Meteor Organization has received 78 reports so far of a fireball event that occurred over the the Northern Italy on 8 April 2022 around 22:12 GMT. Event 2022-2244 was mainly seen from Italy, but we also received reports from Switzerland, Germany, France and Austria. The preliminary trajectory indicates a southeast to northwest path starting near the town of Brescia and ending near Volgelberg, Switzerland.

2044 — Heatmap of witnesses that reported their observation of 8 April 2022, 22h 12min UT fireball (event #2022-2244) over Italy. Blue arrow is the automated calculated trajectory of the fireball deduced from these observations. Credit: IMO

src
If you witnessed this event and/or if you have a video or a photo of this event, please
Submit a Fireball Report

If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read the Fireball FAQ.

Photos and Videos

The 8 April, 2022, 22h12 UT fireball photographed by Michael F. from Garching bei München (Germany). Credit: Michael F.

The 8 April, 2022, 22h12 UT fireball photographed by Stephan A. from Benediktbeuern (Germany). Credit: Stephan A.

Fireball, Bolide?

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.