Summary

2024 BX1 was the eighth object to be detected before impacting the Earth. The meteoroid was discovered at Piszkéstető Observatory (Hungary) on 20 January 2024 and impacted the atmosphere roughly 50 km west of Berlin three hours later, on 21 January 2024 at 00:32 UTC. 

Discovery circumstances and follow-up

2024 BX1 was the third imminent impactor discovered by Krisztián Sárneczky, less than a year after his second, 2023 CX1, and two years after 2022 EB5. The discovery circumstances in this case resembled 2022 EB5 the most, with just a couple of hours of advance warning. Nevertheless, European observers were able to obtain an impressive amount of follow-up observations, with more than 200 astrometric measurements reported between alert and impact. 

The object was predicted to enter the Earth's atmosphere over Germany, with a mostly vertical incoming trajectory, impacting on land roughly 50 km west of Berlin. 

Trajectory in Space

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

2D Impact Corridor

The plot below shows the entry point on the ground, without including the atmospheric effects.

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 

Dozens of people observed the fireball all across central Europe. Some of them had been alerted through social media posts triggered by the imminent impactor systems. Over 15 visual reports were submitted to the International Meteor Organisation from Czech Republic, France and Germany. Several camera networks detected the fireball, which has been also registered by radiometers and spectroscopes. The meteoroid entered with a very steep angle (only 15 degrees to the vertical) at approximately 15 km/s, becoming brighter than the full moon.   

Search for meteorites

The search for the meteorite started shortly after the fireball, with the first calculation of the fall area using fireball data for atmospheric dynamics and nearby wind data for the dark flight. Preliminary strewnfield stretched in a line from NW (larger masses) to SE passing close to Ribbeck (Nauen). On 25 January the first meteorite was found. Meteorite fall has received the name of Ribbeck and is officialy classified as an aubrite, with total know weight of 1.75 kg.