Kelly Kizer Whitt
Earth SkySun, 21 Jan 2024 12:48 UTC
Small asteroid hits Earth on January 21, 2024In 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 impactAs 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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Germany has many problems, asteroids falling among them: 'German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls for nationwide protests to defend democracy against the consequences of his own policies' by EUGYPPIUS JAN 21, 2024 [Link]