Only eight times in history have scientists found an asteroid, tracked its trajectory toward Earth, and caught the resulting fireball on cameras. The latest of these eight events happened in January 2024, with the discovery of asteroid 2024 BX1, a mere three hours before impacting the atmosphere over Europe. And of course, the SETI Institute's own Dr. Peter Jenniskens was hot on the trail, flying to Germany to help search for meteorite fragments. Within the week, several pieces were discovered, and early analysis found that they belong to a rare group of meteorites called "aubrites".

 

Join communications specialist Beth Johnson as she chats with Dr. Jenniskens about this search, the resulting find and its implications, and prior work hunting for meteorites around the world.

Press release: https://www.seti.org/press-release/asteroid-impacted-near-berlin-identified-rare-aubrite

 

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can!

Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! 

Every bit helps! Thank you!

------------------------------------

Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. 

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

------------------------------------

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].