Meteor streaks across Java, sonic boom reported; BRIN explains

Astronomy Professor at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Thomas Djamaluddin, has explained that the bright celestial object seen streaking across Java on Saturday night, 11 July, was a large meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere. In a statement in Jakarta on Monday, Thomas detailed that the meteor was first detected passing over the Java Sea before becoming visible from the Bekasi area at around 9:22:35 PM Western Indonesian Time. At that point, the meteor was still at a considerable altitude, appearing as a relatively small, white luminous object. “Meteors originate from space rocks orbiting the sun. When their trajectory intersects with Earth’s orbit, the rock enters the atmosphere at very high speed. Friction with the atmosphere causes its surface to heat up and glow, making it visible as a meteor,” he said. Thomas explained that the incandescence begins when the space rock enters the atmosphere at an altitude of about 120 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. During this phase, the material undergoes ablation, or erosion, due to extreme temperatures, producing a bright light observable from the ground. Based on trajectory analysis, Thomas stated the meteor moved southeast across parts of Java. As it entered the denser atmosphere, the object became brighter and began to display different colours depending on the observation location. In eastern West Java, residents of Cirebon and Kuningan reported hearing a booming sound moments after the meteor passed. Thomas clarified that the sound was not from a surface impact but a sonic boom generated as the meteor travelled at extremely high speed in the lower atmosphere. “The booming sound occurs because the meteor moves much faster than the speed of sound. The shock wave is only heard moments after the meteor passes because the sound takes time to reach the surface,” he said. In Majalengka, Thomas added, the meteor was reported to appear blue. The same object was subsequently seen in the Nagreg area at around 9:23:37 PM WIB and in Tasikmalaya as a bright light that occasionally illuminated the clouds. Such colour variations are a common phenomenon for meteors, influenced by the mineral composition of the object and the atmospheric conditions it traverses.