On the frequency of the superfireballs: more than 150 years of reports

TL;DR

This study compiles over 500 historical reports of superfireballs from newspapers spanning 150 years, analyzing their frequency, sources, and potential links to meteor showers, despite uncertainties in their abundance estimates.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical database of superfireball reports and explores their possible associations with known meteor showers and minor sources.

Findings

Superfireball reports are relatively constant over 150 years.

Some fireballs are linked to known meteor showers like Perseids, Geminids, and Leonids.

Superfireball sources may originate from minor or unknown showers, possibly asteroidal.

Abstract

Superfireballs are rare phenomena for which the reports are scarce and the estimation of their abundance has a huge margin of uncertainty. As a citizen science project we have gathered >500 reports from newspapers in the 1850-2000 period. This database shows how some superfireball abundances are constant during the period, though the reference newspapers have changed in the last two centuries. We have tentatively related some fireball sources to well-known meteor showers (Perseids, Geminids and Leonids), while superfireball sources may be related to minor or unknown showers, probably of asteroidal origin.