2023 CX1 Meteor Flash
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Gijs de Reijke
While scanning the skies
for near earth objects Hungarian astronomer
Krisztián Sárneczky
first imaged the meter-sized space rock now
cataloged as 2023 CX1
on 12 February 2023 at 20:18:07 UTC.
That was about 7 hours before it impacted planet Earth's atmosphere.
Its predicted trajectory created a rare opportunity for meteor
observers and a last minute plan resulted in
this spectacular image
of the fireball, captured from the Netherlands as
2023 CX1 vaporized
and broke up over northern France.
Remarkably it was Sárneczky's second discovery of an impacting
asteroid, while 2023 CX1 is only the seventh asteroid to be detected
before being successfully predicted to impact Earth.
It has recently become the third such object from which
meteorites have been recovered.
This fireball was witnessed
almost 10 years to the day
following the infamous Chelyabinsk Meteor flash.