Roberto Gorelli points our attention at a recently published meteor related paper:

Telescope-to-Fireball Characterization of Earth Impactor 2022 WJ1

This article has been submitted by Theodore Kareta, Denis Vida, Marco Micheli, Nicholas Moskovitz, Paul Wiegert, Peter G. Brown, Phil J. A. McCausland, Hadrien A. R. Devillepoix, Barbara Malečić, Maja Telišman Prtenjak, Damir Šegon, Benjamin Shafransky, and Davide Farnocchia.

Abstract: Comparing how an asteroid appears in space to its ablation behaviour during atmospheric passage and finally to the properties of associated meteorites represents the ultimate probe of small near-Earth objects. We present observations from the Lowell Discovery Telescope and from multiple meteor camera networks of 2022 WJ1, an Earth impactor which was disrupted over the North American Great Lakes on 19 November 2022. As far as we are aware, this is only the second time an Earth impactor has been specifically observed in multiple passbands prior to impact to characterize its composition. The orbits derived from telescopic observations submitted to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and ground-based meteor cameras result in impact trajectories that agree to within 40 meters, but no meteorites have been found as of yet. The telescopic observations suggest a silicate-rich surface, and thus a moderateto-high albedo, which results in an estimated size for the object of just D = 40−60 cm. Modeling the fragmentation of 2022 WJ1 during its fireball phase also suggests an approximate half-meter original size for the object as well as an ordinary chondrite-like strength. These two lines of evidence both support that 2022 WJ1 was likely an S-type chondritic object and the smallest asteroid compositionally characterized in space. We discuss how best to combine telescopic and meteor camera datasets, how well these techniques agree, and what can be learned from studies of ultra-small asteroids.

You can download this paper for free: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.14595 (27 pages).

 

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