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.
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!
Videos of the asteroid impact
As it blazed through Earth's atmosphere, the small asteroid appeared as a fireball, that is, a very bright meteor or shooting star.
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