Fireball Over Kitt Peak

A fireball streaks across the morning sky above NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The sky is filled with blue-green airglow while the Sun starts to brighten the night from the east. At the bottom center of this photo the constellation Orion rises above the KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope, one of the earliest telescopes on the KPNO site.

Fireballs are exceptionally bright meteors that, like all meteors, heat up when they enter Earth's atmosphere at high velocities and leave a trail of glowing material in the sky. Meteors are classified as fireballs when they shine brighter than the planets, which is an apparent magnitude of –4 or brighter. Located west of Tucson, Arizona in the Sonoran Desert, Kitt Peak benefits from exceptionally dark skies, allowing celestial phenomena like fireballs to stand out more vividly. Its high elevation minimizes atmospheric interference, while its remote distance from city lights ensures dark skies, making it a premier location for astronomical research.

You can find a fulldome version of this image here and a 360-degree panorama of this image here.