Asteroid 2024 BX1
A predicted fall that brought down one of the rarest kinds of meteorite.
Key facts
- When
- 21 January 2024, 00.32 UTC
- Where
- West of Berlin, near Ribbeck in Brandenburg, Germany
- What hit
- less than 1 m across, perhaps about 40 to 50 cm
- Era
- The sensor age, 2000 onwards
- Location
- 52.60° N, 12.76° E
Tiny: a few tonnes of TNT or less.
A brilliant fireball over Berlin, harmless on the ground.
What happened
On the evening of 20 January 2024 Krisztián Sárneczky, who had found 2023 CX1 the year before, discovered another tiny asteroid on a collision course, less than three hours before impact. It came down over Brandenburg, west of Berlin, just after 1.30 in the morning local time, and was filmed by many cameras.
Search teams found the first stones within days, near the village of Ribbeck. The meteorite, named Ribbeck, turned out to be an aubrite, a very rare type of meteorite made mostly of the pale mineral enstatite, which formed in very oxygen-poor conditions.
Aubrites are so pale and unusual that searchers at first had to change their idea of what to look for: the stones were greyish-white with a glassy black crust.
Effects
None on the ground beyond the scattered stones.
The evidence
The telescope observations, camera networks and the recovered meteorites.
Did you know?
Only about ten aubrite falls had ever been seen before Ribbeck.
2024 BX1 was the eighth asteroid ever detected before impact.
Related pages
How is impact energy measured? See energy explained, or try the impact calculator.