Asteroid 2018 LA
A predicted impact that delivered a howardite, the meteorite type this site is named after.
Key facts
- When
- 2 June 2018, 16.44 UTC
- Where
- Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana
- What hit
- a small asteroid a couple of metres across at most
- Era
- The sensor age, 2000 onwards
- Location
- 21.20° S, 24.50° E
A fraction of a kiloton of TNT.
Much smaller than Hiroshima; it lit up the evening sky over southern Africa.
What happened
On the morning of 2 June 2018 a survey telescope in Arizona spotted a tiny asteroid heading for Earth. It struck about eight hours later, as the third asteroid ever caught before impact, and exploded over Botswana at sunset. Farmers and security cameras recorded the fireball.
A search team from Botswana, South Africa, Finland and the United States set off for the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and within days a geologist from Botswana found the first stone near a waterhole called Motopi Pan. More were found later.
The meteorite, named Motopi Pan, is a howardite, a rock from the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta, or from a fragment of it.
Effects
None on the ground beyond the scattered stones.
The evidence
The telescope observations, videos of the fireball, infrasound records and the meteorites themselves. Their age and the history recorded in them link them to a large impact on Vesta.
Did you know?
Howardites are named after Edward Howard, the chemist who showed in 1802 that stones from the sky differ chemically from Earth's rocks.
Motopi Pan was the second meteorite ever recovered from an asteroid seen before impact, after Almahata Sitta.
Related pages
How is impact energy measured? See energy explained, or try the impact calculator.