Fireball and probable meteorite fall in Scoltand on July 2nd

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What a show! On July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT (which equals July 3rd, 00h 50min BST) a dramatic fireball enlighted Scottish skies and was reported by nearly 150 people all over Great Britain and Ireland (Event #3666-2025, Figure 1). From recordings, meteorites must survive the atmospheric entry of the big meteoroid, but first prospections on the theoritical strewn field show their recovery will be complicated.

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A fireball as bright as the Full Moon widely observed from United Kingdom and Ireland

Happy were the people located in United Kingdom and Ireland looking at the sky on July 2-3 night! On July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT (which equals July 3rd, 00h 50min BST), those skies briefly turned out bright!  A very bright (mag. -12.2 according to UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd team calculations, to compare to -12.6 magnitude of a full Moon!) and long-lasting (more than 12 seconds!) fireball fragmented several times, enlighting its luminous path with very bright flares.  Event was observed and reported by nearly 150 people all over United Kingdom and Ireland (Event #3666-2025, Figure 1), and many people managed to record it on video (Figures 4 & 5, and see below), as well as UK Meteor Network (UKMON), Global Meteor Network (GMN) and Fripon (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network) video networks did (Figures 2 & 3). Light was so important, that it blinded a lot of cameras during the brightest part of the meteor (Figure 2).

Figure 1- Heatmap of observers who reported the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball (Event #3666-2025) over Scotland (United Kingdom). The blue arrow is the automatically calculated trajectory of the meteoroid that was at the source of the meteoric event. Credit: AMS, IMO
Figure 2- Comparison obetween two images recorded by UK002L camera of UKMON video network during the fireball (at 23h 50min 06sec UT, top image) and after it (at 23h 50min 26sec UT, down image) where the persistent train is still visible! Credit: UKMON, GMN, Jamie Shepherd
Figure 2- Comparison between two images recorded by UK002L camera of UKMON during the fireball (at 23h 50min 06sec UT, top image) and after it (at 23h 50min 26sec UT, down image) where the persistent train is still visible! Credit: UKMON, GMN, Jamie Shepherd
Figure 2- Image of the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by UK0082 camera of UKMON video network. Credit: UKMON, GMN, Jamie Shepherd
Figure 3- Image of the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by UK0082 camera of UKMON. Credit: UKMON, GMN, Jamie Shepherd
Figure 5- The July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by Martin C., from Onich (GB, report #3666ee-2025), with Lochaber Astro Allsky Camera. Credit: Martin C.
Figure 4- The July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by Martin C., from Onich (GB, report #3666ee-2025), with Lochaber Astro Allsky Camera. Credit: Martin C.
Figure 5- The July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by Michael A., from Great-Britain (report #3666dt-2025). Credit: Michael A.
Figure 5- The July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball captured by Michael A., from Great-Britain (report #3666dt-2025). Credit: Michael A.

Video by David Pauling (Great-Britain, report #3666eq-2025):

Video by James Hail from Glenfinnan (Great-Britain, report #3666eq-2025), showing the brightness on the ground:

Video by Robert (Great-Britain, report #3666eu-2025), allowing the comparison between the fireball brightness and a city floor lamp:

Video from ABC News:

Determining the atmospheric trajectory of the fireball…

Thanks to all these recordings, a UKMON/GMN team leaded by Jamie Shepherd calculated the physical parameters of the meteoroid that was at the origin of the sporadic fireball, as well as its atmospheric trajectory. According to them, the meteoroid, coming from the inner parts of the main asteroid belt (Figure 6)  weighted a bit more than 60 kg before it entered the atmosphere. It entered the Earth atmosphere with a 12.3 km/s (nearly 44 300 km/h) and a 31.3° inclination relative to the horizontal.

The meteor started being visible as it was 97 km above the ground, 15 km West of Hebrides islands (lat. ~ 56.70° N ; lon. ~ 6,70° W). It then travelled on a nearly Eastern trajectory (azimuth ~83°) which measures nearly 120 km, bringing it to shine above the grounds of Scotland, ending its visible path when it was below 25 km in altitude, nearly above Loch Treig (lat. ~ 56.81° N ; lon. ~ 4,77° W, figures 7 & 8).

Figure 6- View from North of the orbit of the meteoroid that was at the origin of the July 2nd, 23h 50min UT fireball over Scotland. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd
Figure 6- View from North of the orbit (in green) of the meteoroid that was at the origin of the July 2nd, 23h 50min UT fireball over Scotland. Earth orbit is in blue, Mars is in red and Jupiter in brown. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd
Figure 7: Projected path of the meteor above ground level. Crosses indicate the position of the numerous UKMON and GMN video stations that recorded the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd
Figure 7- Projected path of the meteor above ground level. Crosses indicate the position of the numerous UKMON and GMN video stations that recorded the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd
Figure 8- Close-up view of the path of the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd
Figure 8- Close-up view of the path of the July 2nd, 2025, 23h 50min UT fireball. Credit: UKMON, GMN and Jamie Shepherd

…to try to located the position and extension of a meteorites strewn field!

From witnesses reports and video recordings, the meteoroid highly fragmented during its atmospheric entry ; some witnesses also reported having heard sonic booms after the display. According to calculations, some kilograms of meteorites could have landed on the ground. Unfortunately, the land access and physical properties of the ground itself make the potential recovery of meteorites very complicated.

Bill Ward, using his own calculated strewn field calculated from visual reports and GMN video recordings, tried to go on site to see if he could by chance find anything. Here is his report of this difficult day clearly showing how harsh the recovery conditions are: “After your email I thought it would be worth a hike…. This proved to be a huge mistake as the terrain was much worse than I thought. Despite the low probability of success (and the estate manager not releasing the code for the main gate so I had to go cross country.) The the high rainfall has left the ground saturated and I couldn’t even get close to the main strewn field (or where I thought it might be). I’ve attached a zip file with two pictures. The first (Figure 9) is a general view of the estimated strewn field, starting just over the rise of ground in the fore ground running half way up the mountain, background left, maybe 5 to 10km. The second (Figure 10) is the type of terrain in the valley of the main fall area.  If anyone recovers any meteorites from this type of ground then they have had immense luck. The closest I got to a fusion crust was finding some animal droppings, either from a deer or a very, very large rabit! After 6 hours I was exhausted and I struggled to cross the wet ground to get back to my car. Sunburned, battered and bruised by falling so often in the swamp with fallen trees, blistered feet, and bitten by bugs, the next meteorite hunt I go on will be if one lands in my back garden! A VERY long day!”

Figure 9- Panoramic view of the meteorite potential strewn field calculated by Bill Ward, West of Ben Alder. Credit: Bill Ward
Figure 9- Panoramic view of the meteorite potential strewn field calculated by Bill Ward, West of Ben Alder. Credit: Bill Ward
Figure 10- State of the ground where the meteorites associated to July 2nd, 2025, 23h50min UT fireball, may have landed. Credit: Bill Ward
Figure 10- State of the ground where the meteorites associated to July 2nd, 2025, 23h50min UT fireball, may have landed. Credit: Bill Ward

Last update: July 13th, 2025, 14h 50min UT


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