Ribbeck, Germany (2024 BX1)
1 min read
Berlin, Germany – Sunday, January 21, 2024, 00:32 UTC, A large meteor fireball was observed falling at a steep angle, at 15 km/s, and ending at a height of 22 km. Hundreds of people witnessed the event, both on the ground and on live streams online from around the world. Aside from being rather large, there was something else that made this fireball unique… this meteor was expected and arrived right on time!
Asteroid 2024 BX1 (initially called Sar2736) was discovered only 3 hours before impact, by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky (same person who discovered 2023 CX1!). 2023 CX1 is only the eighth asteroid discovered before being successfully predicted to impact Earth. Before it impacted, 2024 BX1 was originally a near-Earth asteroid on an Earth-crossing Apollo-type orbit. (Wikipedia: 2024 BX1)
A Meteorite has been recovered from this event! See story below.
News and Video
Meteorite Found!
Search efforts are still underway with multiple teams in the same general area.
Two university teams have posted search areas that overlap the Strewnify predicted area. Wind modeling is critical for this event and we believe these teams each took a different approach, probably using data from the nearest 1 to 4 radiosonde weather stations.
Click the link to visit the post on the Astronomical Institutes of Czechoslovakia page
“Where are #meteorites from #2024BX1 / #Sar2736 ? Preliminary modelling shows most small ones are in woods ~10 km west of Nauen, but 10+ g rocks are in fields. Due to the very steep entry angle, the strewn field is quite small, so the chances are good.” – Denis Vida posted on X (@meteordoc):
StrewnLAB Maps & Data
For this event, I analyzed local video from Alex Folta to confirm the trajectory data from JPL/Scout. This trajectory data was automatically processed by our StrewnLAB software to predict the search area shown below. Please download and review the Google Earth files below for detailed maps of the search area.
20240122 UPDATE V3p1: Minor update to the search area. Weather data has not yet been processed, and the search area will get even smaller when it becomes available.
20240123 UPDATE V5: Accurate weather data available. High confidence results.
20240126 UPDATE V7: I was not provided with the exact find location, but multiple reports from the field helped rule out outlying areas through wind data calibration. The V7 maps are based on these reports.
20240210 UPDATE V8: I was provided with approximate find coordinates for over 30 masses and used that data to calibrate the wind model, within the measured variation. The resulting map is known to be very accurate. At this time, we expect all of the fragments larger than 80 grams have been located, based on video analysis. Search efforts should probably be focused on the southeast area of the field.
Why is the Strewn Field Backwards?
I was asked why the mass zones appear backwards for this event and it bears explanation. When a meteor has a steep trajectory and a tailwind (meaning the wind came from the same direction as the meteor path), the smaller fragments can be blown past the larger fragments, resulting in a strewn field that is effectively “backwards”. The smaller fragments are more affected by the wind because of their low mass, slower speed, and resulting longer flight time. In the case of 2024 BX1, even though the meteor was travelling west to east, any smaller meteorite fragments would have been blown east of the larger fragments, by moderate west winds at the time of the event.
For more information on this and other falls, join the discussion on social media, by clicking the links below:
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Weather Data
The author and founder of Strewnify.com, an automotive controls engineer, with a passion for physics.
Hancock, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888
