New Year’s meteorite recovery in Arizona

At the end of last year, like an anticipated New Year’s Eve firework, a very bright and long lasting slow fireball enlightened the skies of Western United States. Observed and video recorded on December 29th, 02h 40min UT, the acquired data show some potential meteorite falls in Arizona. A few days later, on January 5th, the first meteorites associated to this meteoric event were recovered in Arizona!

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A bright fireball reported by nearly 100 people

On December 29th, 02h 40min UT, hundreds of people spotted a very bright fireball from Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah (Figure 1). Nearly hundred of them sent a fireball report (Event #8283-2023) to the AMS/IMO, which allowed, combined with video recordings from CCTV (see below) and meteor video network AllSky7, to build the atmospheric trajectory of the meteoroid. According to Strewnify website, the interplanetary rock entered the atmosphere at around 13.5 km/s in a rough South-West direction (azimuth ~ 238°) with a 37° inclination, and kept being bright until it reached a 26 km altitude.

Figure 1- Heat map of witnesses that reported their observation of the December 29th, 2023, 02h 40min UT fireball (Event #8283-2023). The blue arrow displays the path automatically calculated from those visual reports. Credit: IMO/AMS

Meteorites recovered on January 1st, 2.5 days after fireball sighting

New Year’s Eve passed, but did not trouble meteorite hunters who go on working to find out where potential meteorite fragments could have fallen. On January 1st, 2024, which is 2,5 days after the fireball was observed, Sonny Clary and Terry Clark discovered the 3 meteorite fragments associated to this meteor near Quartzsite, Arizona (USA). Main mass weighted 350 g (Figure 3), and the two others were 25,5 and 70,5 g (Figure 2). The initial mass was estimated to be 25 kg, so other meteorites may be discovered in the coming days or weeks.