On the night of Saturday, January 20, 2024, to Sunday, January 21, 2024, an asteroid fell approximately 50 kilometers west of Berlin. The asteroid was seen at 1:32 a.m. near Nennhausen in the Havelland district. A webcam from Stadtwerke Leipzig managed to produce a spectacular video: it shows the asteroid entering the atmosphere.
Here you can see the seven-second video of Stadtwerke Leipzig in a publication by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The fireball that was created when the asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere could be seen as far away as Leipzig and Prague, as the Tagesschau reports. This video from the Zeiss Observatory in the city of Demmin also shows the entry of the asteroid.
The asteroid was discovered relatively late. NASA only warned a few hours before the event via Twitter.
The asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere at a speed of a few kilometers per second and was comparatively slow. The presumed diameter of the asteroid is around one meter.
The small asteroid was initially named “Sar2736” after its discoverer, Krisztián Sárneczky, a Hungarian astronomer. The burned-out celestial body now bears the name “2024 BX1”. Here you can find the official entry about the asteroid.
According to current knowledge, no one was injured by debris from the asteroid and nothing was damaged. Already on Sunday, search parties of (hobby) astronomers were looking for the remains of the asteroid that had not burned up.
The scientific analysis of asteroid remains can provide new insights into the formation of the universe and astronomy in general.
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