First reported from Botswana and South Africa via the IMO fireball report form, this suspected meteorite fall is likely to be linked with newly-disovered asteroid ZLAF9B2. Video recording of the event confirms a large fireball event (-28mag) with subsequent impact explosion. Event happened on 2nd of June 2018 at 18:49 local time and was first reported from Ottosdal, North West, South Africa.
Strong infrasound detection of a bolide at station I47 in South Africa today at 1730 UT. Origin time between 1645-17 UT over Botswana. Yield 0.3-0.5 kT, corresponding to 2m diameter asteroid. #fireball #neoimpacts pic.twitter.com/fVe5GtwTtb
— Peter Brown (@pgbrown) June 3, 2018
Asteroid ZLAF9B2 was discovered by Richard Kowalski using a 60″ telescope and it surprised astronomers with it’s closed to Earth approach trajectory.
According to NASA/JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), asteroid ZLAF9B2 approached Earth at 27,738 miles per hour (44,640 km per hour).
Trajectory models suggest small asteroid ZLAF9B2 impacted Earth’s atmosphere over South Africa on Saturday, June 2, 2018
Also read: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.05164.pdf
