Argentina: Video of Bolide Explosion over La Pampa

Alejandro Agostinelli alerted us this morning to the presence of this video on YouTube (and on his own Magia Critica) website. This impressive phenomenon occured on Sunday, September 27th 2009 and was seen from points as distant as the Chilean city of Temuco and Mar del Plata on the Atlantic Ocean. According to Dr. Richard Branham of the Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas, the object was a bolide rather than a meteor or meteorite. Bolides, he explains, are large meteors that are incinerated as they enter the atmosphere and may attain significant apparent magnitudes, accompanied by loud reports.