We’ve just had the 8th example of an Near Earth Object discovered prior to impacting the Earth. 2024 BX1 was discovered by Krisztián Sárneczky (observatory K88 in Hungary) in images exposed at 21:48 UTC last night (Jan 20). It was then posted on the NEOCP as object sar2736. Peter Birtwhistle, using Bill Gray’s Findorb program, noted that it was likely to impact the Earth at around 00:32 UTC this morning (Jan 21). Unfortunately, the skies over the UK were cloudy but many European observers got astrometry before impact. The object was probably around 1-m in diameter and generated a bright fireball over Berlin.
This is very similar to the last case, 2023 CX1, which was also discovered by Sárneczky and which led to a meteorite fall in Normandy last February.
The 8 pre-impacts so far are 2008 TC3, 2014 AA, 2018 LA, 2019 MO, 2022 EB5, 2022 WJ1, 2023 CX1 and 2024 BX1.
How long will it be before we have enough warning that we can book a flight to watch the fireball?