EARTHSKY
Here's the full video of the asteroid #Sar2736, a ~1 m object that broke up some 50 m west of #Belin, #Germany, and probably dropped some meteorites on the ground. Video credit: https://t.co/72o6ZzPNz8 pic.twitter.com/PA73dkqid1
— Denis Vida (@meteordoc) January 21, 2024
Small asteroid hits Earth on January 21, 2024
In the late-night hours of January 21, 2024 – 90 minutes before impact over European skies – NASA said a small asteroid would hit Earth’s atmosphere. And hit it did. The space rock struck on schedule above an area west of Berlin, Germany. The asteroid was only about 1 meter (3 feet) in diameter. It posed no danger to people on the ground. Yet it’s possible the asteroid might have spread small meteorites over the landscape.
In the hours since then, footage of the fireball in the skies over Germany has been coming in on social media.
Asteroid hunter Krisztián Sárneczky of Budapest, Hungary, discovered the asteroid only shortly before impact. Sárneczky has become famous for last-minute discoveries such as this one, including the discoveries of an asteroid that fell over France in 2023 and another that hit over the Arctic Ocean in 2022. This is only the 8th asteroid detected before impact.
The discovery images of the imminent impactor #2024BX1 (aka #Sar2736 ) with the 60-cm Schmidt Telescope at #Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory (#konkolyobs) in #Hungary. pic.twitter.com/qMcXerhvL4
— Krisztián Sárneczky (@sarneczky) January 21, 2024
The small asteroid received the preliminary designation Sar2736. Then the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center gave it a formal label of 2024 BX1.
If you took images of the asteroid burning up over Europe, share them with us!
