2022 WJ1

Summary

2022 WJ1 was the sixth impactor discovered while still outside Earth's atmosphere. Found by the Mt. Lemmon station of the Catalina Sky Survey, it impacted Earth near the Great Lakes region in North America.

Discovery circumstances and follow-up

2022 WJ1 was first detected by David Rankin at 04:53 UTC on 19 November 2022, while surveying the sky with the 1.5 m Mt. Lemmon station of the Catalina Sky Survey, in Arizona, USA. Roughly 40 minutes later a full report with 4 positions was submitted to the Minor Planet Center, and triggered possible impact alerts.

Trajectory in Space

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

2D Impact Corridor

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

Impact Corridor Diagram

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

Over 150 visual reports were submitted to the International Meteor Organization from Canada and the USA. The Western Meteor Physics Group’s AllSky7 Camera Network, as well as CMOR, detected the fireball across southern Ontario at the predicted time. Moreover, weather radar detections of fragments were reported as well.

Search for Meteorites

Fragments have certainly survived the atmospheric pass and were observed by radar down to a kilometre above ground. However, most of them were detected over the waters of Lake Ontario and no meteorite has been recovered from the over-ground parts of the falling ellipse.