Starship Asterisk*

2023 CX1 Meteor Flash

Explanation: 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.

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Just an incredible shot. So amazing to consider that the photographer was actually able to plan to catch a meteor! We live in wonderful times.
There's a beautiful layer of fog in the field, making the shot even more dreamy.

So this meteor actually had pieces (meteorites) impact? I would have guessed that for such an occurrence, the streak of light would reach to the ground. Did the main body explode and the pieces that then get to the ground travel at a slower velocity from there down?

I can see some short streaks in the sky that are approximately perpendicular to the meteor trail. Are those stars? I wonder what the time for this exposure was. I would have guessed it would have needed to be a short exposure (?)

Is there an alert service for knowing such impacts / discoveries in future ?


On a related note, it would be awesome to collate the images from different locations (and get a 3D perspective).

1) The streak is not visible because the meteor slowed down. It was the fastest in the green zone, where it could ionize the surrounding air. In the yellow zone, maximum burn happened (hence the bright spot, that slowly fades closer to the horizon). It would have broken to many pieces (all going in same direction). I see two distinct bright spots, indicating a smaller (and slower) piece and a bigger one with longer streak. All of this would have happened in a second or two.

2) Perpendicular trails are quite possibly stars and appearing because of a long exposure. My guess is that the photographer used very long duration timer, as it is impossible to know exactly the time of impact (and therefore location too).
Long exposure on an otherwise dark night could produce this.

MarkBour wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:50 am Just an incredible shot. So amazing to consider that the photographer was actually able to plan to catch a meteor! We live in wonderful times.
There's a beautiful layer of fog in the field, making the shot even more dreamy.

So this meteor actually had pieces (meteorites) impact? I would have guessed that for such an occurrence, the streak of light would reach to the ground. Did the main body explode and the pieces that then get to the ground travel at a slower velocity from there down?

I can see some short streaks in the sky that are approximately perpendicular to the meteor trail. Are those stars? I wonder what the time for this exposure was. I would have guessed it would have needed to be a short exposure (?)

MarkBour wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:50 am Just an incredible shot. So amazing to consider that the photographer was actually able to plan to catch a meteor! We live in wonderful times.
There's a beautiful layer of fog in the field, making the shot even more dreamy.

So this meteor actually had pieces (meteorites) impact? I would have guessed that for such an occurrence, the streak of light would reach to the ground. Did the main body explode and the pieces that then get to the ground travel at a slower velocity from there down?

I can see some short streaks in the sky that are approximately perpendicular to the meteor trail. Are those stars? I wonder what the time for this exposure was. I would have guessed it would have needed to be a short exposure (?)

If you see a meteor appear to reach the ground, it is hundreds of kilometers away, because they stop ablating while they're still very high. It means you saw it drop behind the horizon. A meteor that is still ablating at ground level represents a crater forming event!

Meteorites themselves are usually cold when they land. Witnessed falls that were quickly recovered have been observed to frost up- because they were a little cold in space, didn't have time to heat during the few seconds their parent bodies were ablating, and then fell through very cold high altitude air for several minutes before hitting the ground.

When imaging with the goal of catching a meteor, it is common to make 30-60 second exposures.

That is one slick and well-framed capture! Kudos to Gijs de Reijke.

So, here's my question: where do you find these real-time alerts to astronomical events? I do practically nothing with telescopes (as yet,) but it would be sweet to be notified of something like this that might be visible in my area.

Al Denelsbeck wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 8:22 pm That is one slick and well-framed capture! Kudos to Gijs de Reijke.

So, here's my question: where do you find these real-time alerts to astronomical events? I do practically nothing with telescopes (as yet,) but it would be sweet to be notified of something like this that might be visible in my area.

This was reported in the mainstream news, and you'd likely have seen it if you use an aggregator like Google News. It was also well known to those who are on meteor and meteorite discussion forums. Organizations like the International Meteor Organization and American Meteor Society had information on their websites. There are professional bulletin distribution services, but they're not really designed for easy access. You might subscribe to the Minor Planet Mailing List. I think that was the first place things really went out for this object.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 2:32 pm

MarkBour wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:50 am Just an incredible shot. So amazing to consider that the photographer was actually able to plan to catch a meteor! We live in wonderful times.
There's a beautiful layer of fog in the field, making the shot even more dreamy.

So this meteor actually had pieces (meteorites) impact? I would have guessed that for such an occurrence, the streak of light would reach to the ground. Did the main body explode and the pieces that then get to the ground travel at a slower velocity from there down?

I can see some short streaks in the sky that are approximately perpendicular to the meteor trail. Are those stars? I wonder what the time for this exposure was. I would have guessed it would have needed to be a short exposure (?)

If you see a meteor appear to reach the ground, it is hundreds of kilometers away, because they stop ablating while they're still very high. It means you saw it drop behind the horizon. A meteor that is still ablating at ground level represents a crater forming event!

Meteorites themselves are usually cold when they land. Witnessed falls that were quickly recovered have been observed to frost up- because they were a little cold in space, didn't have time to heat during the few seconds their parent bodies were ablating, and then fell through very cold high altitude air for several minutes before hitting the ground.

When imaging with the goal of catching a meteor, it is common to make 30-60 second exposures.

Wow - some really surprising facts here!

The framing of the photo is incredible! It looks like a Monet painting. The paired trees in the foreground are almost too perfect!

what a way to while away time!

Magic; show yourself once in a while! ok!

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 8:33 pm

Al Denelsbeck wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 8:22 pm That is one slick and well-framed capture! Kudos to Gijs de Reijke.

So, here's my question: where do you find these real-time alerts to astronomical events? I do practically nothing with telescopes (as yet,) but it would be sweet to be notified of something like this that might be visible in my area.

This was reported in the mainstream news, and you'd likely have seen it if you use an aggregator like Google News. It was also well known to those who are on meteor and meteorite discussion forums. Organizations like the International Meteor Organization and American Meteor Society had information on their websites. There are professional bulletin distribution services, but they're not really designed for easy access. You might subscribe to the Minor Planet Mailing List. I think that was the first place things really went out for this object.

Excellent, thanks! Looking at the Minor Planet Mailing List now...

For those interested, it can be found at https://groups.io/g/mpml

Norhern France is about 200 km away from The Netherlands, so the meteorite in the image?

Igwasborn wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:48 am Norhern France is about 200 km away from The Netherlands, so the meteorite in the image?

This is how the meteor appeared a couple hundred kilometers away from where it dropped meteorites.

From "image of the fireball, captured from the Netherlands as 2023 CX1 vaporized and broke up over northern France" I understood the meteor was over northern France when in The Netherlands the picture was taken.

igwasborn@gmail.com wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 12:36 am From "image of the fireball, captured from the Netherlands as 2023 CX1 vaporized and broke up over northern France" I understood the meteor was over northern France when in The Netherlands the picture was taken.

Well, it ended over northern France. It began over the English Channel.