2023 meteoroid
2023 CX
1
, initially known under temporary designation
Sar2667
, was a metre-sized
asteroid
or
meteoroid
that entered Earth's atmosphere on 13 February 2023 02:59
UTC
and disintegrated as a
meteor
over the coast of
Normandy, France
along the
English Channel
.
[6]
It was discovered less than seven hours before
impact
, by Hungarian astronomer
Krisztian Sarneczky
at
Konkoly Observatory
's
Piszkestet? Station
in the
Matra Mountains
,
Hungary
.
[2]
[9]
2023 CX
1
is the
seventh asteroid
discovered before impacting Earth and successfully
predicted
, and the third of those for which
meteorites
have been recovered. Before it impacted,
2023 CX
1
was a
near-Earth asteroid
on an Earth-crossing
Apollo-type orbit
.
[1]
Discovery
[
edit
]
During a routine search for
near-Earth objects
with his 0.6-metre (60 cm; 2 ft; 24 in)
Schmidt telescope
,
[10]
Krisztian Sarneczky
first imaged
2023 CX
1
on 12 February 2023 at 20:18:07 UTC, when it was already less than 233,000 km (145,000 mi) from Earth and inside the orbit of the Moon at 0.61
lunar distances
.
[2]
[11]
At discovery, the asteroid had an
apparent magnitude
of 19.4 and moved quickly in the
northern hemisphere sky
, at an
angular rate
of 14
arcseconds
per minute and a
radial velocity
of 9 km/s (5.6 mi/s) towards Earth.
[11]
Sarneczky immediately recognized it was a near-Earth object, but only realized it was on course for
impact
with Earth when he reobserved it half an hour later.
[9]
Sarneczky gave the object the temporary designation
Sar2667
and reported the discovery to the
Minor Planet Center
's (MPC's)
Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page
at 20:49 UTC, calling for further follow-up from other observatories around the world.
[12]
Astronomers at
Vi?njan Observatory
in Ti?an,
Croatia
observed the asteroid starting at 21:03 UTC and confirmed that it was headed for impact with Earth.
[2]
[13]
The
European Space Agency
took notice of the asteroid's impending impact and alerted the public through social media.
[10]
Astronomers around the world continuously observed the asteroid to refine its trajectory as it approached Earth and its impact location.
[12]
[11]
The asteroid reached a peak brightness of magnitude 13 (about the brightness of
Pluto
) right before it
entered Earth's shadow
at around 02:50 UTC. It then faded dramatically and became invisible until impact.
[1]
[12]
The asteroid was last observed on 13 February 2023 02:52:07 UTC by Jost Jahn at the
SATINO Remote Observatory
in
Haute Provence
, France, just two minutes after it entered Earth's shadow and seven minutes before it impacted.
[1]
[11]
At the time of that last observation, the asteroid had faded from magnitude 13 to 16 and moved extremely quickly at an angular rate of 1.7 degrees per minute, at a distance of approximately 11,100 km (6,900 mi) from Earth's center (4,700 km or 2,900 mi altitude
[a]
).
[14]
On 13 February 2023 04:13 UTC (one hour after the impact), MPC gave the asteroid its official
minor planet
provisional designation
2023 CX
1
. At least 20 observatories observed
2023 CX
1
and submitted
astrometry
to the MPC before impact, with over 300 astrometric positions recorded in total.
[2]
[1]
Impact
[
edit
]
Flight path of
2023 CX
1
plotted on a map, starting from the
English Channel
and ending at the coast of
Normandy, France
to the east.
At 02:59:21 UTC (local time 03:59:21
CET
),
2023 CX
1
entered the atmosphere at a velocity of 14.5 km/s (9.0 mi/s) with an inclination 40?50° relative to the vertical.
[13]
[15]
As the meteoroid travelled eastward over the
English Channel
to the coast of
Normandy, France
, it experienced significant
atmospheric drag
and began burning up as a bright
meteor
at an altitude of 89 km (55 mi).
[13]
[8]
It was seen by witnesses from France, Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany.
[10]
[16]
The meteor began fragmenting at an altitude of 29 km (18 mi) and then completely broke apart at 28 km (17 mi), producing a bright flash due to the rapid vaporization of its fragments.
[8]
In the process, the meteor released a great amount of
kinetic energy
. That produced a
shock wave
, which was heard by some witnesses and was detected by French
seismographs
.
[15]
The meteor disappeared at an altitude of 20 km (12 mi), after which its resulting
meteorites
continued falling in
dark flight
.
[8]
Over 80 witness reports of the meteor were submitted to the
International Meteor Organization
(IMO).
[16]
The 94g meteorite found by Lois Leblanc
Upon breakup,
2023 CX
1
dropped meteorites over the
Normandy
region
and produced a
strewn field
spanning from
Dieppe
to
Doudeville
.
[15]
Guided by
Peter Jenniskens
, researchers and
citizen scientists
of the Fireball Recovery and Interplanetary Observation Network (
FRIPON
) immediately began a coordinated search effort in the expected
meteorite fall
area.
[17]
On 15 February 2023 15:47 UTC (local time 16:47 CET), FRIPON member and art student Lois Leblanc found the first meteorite of
2023 CX
1
in a field in the
commune
of
Saint-Pierre-le-Viger
.
[17]
The meteorite weighed about 95 g (3.4 oz)
[18]
and is described as a "dark stone."
[17]
[19]
Late in the afternoon of the next day, Peter Jenniskens found a 3 g meteorite near the small-size end of the strewn field that confirmed the predicted center line. By March 2023, over 20 additional meteorites were recovered, with masses ranging 2 to 350 g (0.1 to 12.3 oz).
[18]
The IMO estimates that
2023 CX
1
could have dropped only one large meteorite up to ~2 kg (4 lb) in mass, plus an uncertain number of smaller meteorites up to several tens of grams each.
[6]
[8]
The largest meteorite is expected to have landed near the commune of
Venestanville
.
[8]
2023 CX
1
is the seventh asteroid discovered before being successfully
predicted
to impact Earth, and also the third whose meteorites were collected after its predicted impact.
[6]
[17]
It is Sarneczky's second discovery of an impacting asteroid, after
2022 EB
5
which he discovered a year prior in March 2022.
[10]
Orbit
[
edit
]
Prior to impact,
2023 CX
1
was on an
Apollo-type orbit
that crossed the orbits of Earth and Mars.
[3]
It orbited the Sun at an average distance of 1.63
astronomical units
(244
×
10
^
6
km; 152
×
10
^
6
mi), varying from 0.92 AU at
perihelion
to 2.34 AU at
aphelion
due to its
eccentric orbit
.
[3]
The orbit had a low
inclination
of 3.4° with respect to the
ecliptic
and an
orbital period
of 2.08 years. The asteroid last passed perihelion on 13 February 2021 and impacted Earth before it was set to make its next perihelion on 15 March 2023.
[5]
[3]
The last time
2023 CX
1
made a close approach to Earth was around 7 (± 1) June 2000, when it passed around 150?161
LD
(58?62 million km; 36?38 million mi) from the planet.
[4]
Before that,
2023 CX
1
had made several distant close approaches with Earth and Mars during the 1900s, though it probably never approached within 10 LD (3.8 million km; 2.4 million mi) from these planets.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Altitude is the difference between the geocentric distance and
Earth's radius
of 6,371 km (3,959 mi).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"2023 CX1"
. Minor Planet Center
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"MPEC 2023-C103 : 2023 CX1"
.
Minor Planet Electronic Circular
. Minor Planet Center. 13 February 2023
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Horizons Batch showing epoch 2023-Jan-01"
.
JPL Horizons
. Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"JPL Small-Body Database Browser: (2023 CX1)"
(2023-02-13 last obs.).
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Perihelion @ 0.922 AU on 13 Feb 2021"
.
JPL Horizons
(Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Whitt, Kelly Kizer (15 February 2023).
"Small asteroid impacts Earth's atmosphere over France"
.
EarthSky
. Retrieved
15 February
2023
.
- ^
Antier, Karl (13 February 2023).
"Imminent asteroid entry over the Channel on Feb.13, 02h59 UT"
. International Meteor Organization
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Borovi?ka, Ji?i; Spurny, Pavel (15 February 2023).
"The atmospheric trajectory of 2023 CX1 and the possible meteorite strewn field"
. International Meteor Organization
. Retrieved
15 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Pictures from space! Our image of the day"
.
Space.com
. 13 February 2023
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Howell, Elizabeth (13 February 2023).
"Falling asteroid sparks brilliant fireball over Europe just hours after discovery (video)"
.
Space.com
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Horizons Batch from 2023-Feb-12 20:18 and 2023-Feb-13 03:00"
.
JPL Horizons
. Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Seventh shooting star ever spotted before strike"
. European Space Agency. 13 February 2023
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
Antier, Karl (13 February 2023).
"2023 CX1 : 7th predicted Earth impact!"
. International Meteor Organization
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
"Horizons Batch on 2023-Feb-13 02:52:07"
.
JPL Horizons
. Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
14 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
Steinhausser, Asma (14 February 2023).
"Pluie de pierres en Normandie!"
(in French). FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel
. Retrieved
15 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Fireball Events in 2023 → 937-2023"
. International Meteor Organization. 13 February 2023
. Retrieved
13 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Antier, Karl (15 February 2023).
"Une meteorite normande issue de 2023 CX1 retrouvee!"
(in French). FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel
. Retrieved
15 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Green, Daniel W. E. (6 March 2023).
"CBET 5230 : 2023 CX_1"
.
Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams
(5230). Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
. Retrieved
18 February
2024
.
- ^
Dickinson, David (17 February 2023).
"Small Asteroid Spotted Hours Before Demise"
.
Sky & Telescope
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
External links
[
edit
]