Summary

2019 MO was the fourth object to be detected before impacting the Earth. The meteoroid was discovered by ATLAS in Mauna Loa on 22 June 2019 and impacted the atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea 12 hours later.

Discovery circumstances and follow-up

The asteroid was discovered by the ATLAS survey station on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA. The discoverers only reported 4 positions, sufficient to detect a possibility of impact but not to ensure its certainty. Additional searches for pre-discovery detections, triggered by the identification of an infrasound event (see below) lead to the identification of three additional serendipitous observations by the Pan-STARRS 2 survey telescope. 

The combination of the ATLAS and Pan-STARRS dataset led to a much more accurate trajectory determination, confirming an impact over the Caribbeans. 

Trajectory in Space

In the video below, the vernal equinox is to the right, while the view is tilted 45 degrees to the ecliptic.

Trajectory Relative to the Earth

The video below shows the trajectory in space of 2019 MO in the hours prior to its impact with Earth. The size of the asteroid is greatly magnified in order to make it visible.

2D Impact Corridor

The plot below shows the entry point at an altitude of 100 km above the sea level.

3D Impact Corridor

The highlighted area in the animation below represents the 1-σ (in red) and the 3-σ (in orange) fall area of the propagated object without including the atmospheric effects.

Atmospheric Phase Details

No optical detections of the event. Infrasound data available, detected with 3 IMS (International Monitoring System) stations, allow to estimate the size of the impacting object to be about 5 metres. NOAA-NASA weather satellite (GOES-16) detected the bright flash of an asteroid impacting Earth’s atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea as well.

Search for Meteorites

No meteorites could be recovered due to the location of the impact point over water.