[meteorite-list] Minor planet impactor witnessed over Botswana

From: Matson, Rob D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 00:22:07 +0000
Message-ID: <4A4FA25E4DFE584AA580F4F069F9B4400111303558_at_EMP-EXMR204.corp.leidos.com>

Hi All,

Catalina Sky Survey has done it again -- discovery of an impacting NEO, this time
just 8 1/2 hours prior to impact. CSS discovered the NEO at 8:14 UT today (1:14 am
MST), and a bright vapor trail was seen to the north of observer Dhiraj S in Botswana
(24? 37' 21'' S, 25? 54' 57'' E) at 16:44 UT, consistent with both the time and location
of the asteroid's predicted trajectory:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/report/142364

Bill Gray's time/location plot for predicted impact:

https://projectpluto.com/temp/z.png

Yellow cross-hairs are the observer's location. Asteroid size pretty similar to that of
impactor 2008 TC3 that ultimately resulted in meteorites recovered from Almahata
Sitta in northern Sudan. Unfortunately, due to the short time between discovery and
impact, very few observations (12?) made of the impacting body (temporary designation
ZLAF9B2) on this occasion. Compare that with almost 800 observations of 2008 TC3.

--Rob
Received on Sat 02 Jun 2018 08:22:07 PM PDT