Speaker
Description
The occurrence of asteroid explosions over Botswana skies is often going undetected as there are no formal networks for the observation of such events in the country. Although there are 2 skycams networks active in the neighbouring South Africa, Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) and Global Meteor Network (GMN), there are huge time and expense limitations, large distances to cover and only partially enthusiastic camera owners, as well as sparsely populated areas and poor access. As a result, the local scientific communities must rely on volunteer system and (uncalibrated) videos from the public to try and locate possible falls.
On June 2, 2018 the asteroid 2018 LA over Botswana was only the second asteroid detected in space prior to impacting over land. Video observations of the fireball from cctv cameras and eyewitnesses were used to constrain the asteroid’s position in its orbit and were used to triangulate the location of the fireball’s main flare over the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (Botswana). The reconstruction of the strewn-field was very precise and twenty-three meteorites were recovered. A consortium study of eight of these meteorite classified Motopi Pan as an HED polymict breccia derived from howardite, cumulate and basaltic eucrite, and diogenite lithologies originated from Vesta.
More recently, on the 3rd of August 2025, a bolide explosion was caught on cctv cameras over the southern region of Botswana and along the border with South Africa. Almost immediately the videos of the event flooded the media in South Africa, while Botswana was much slower in picking up the news. A team of local scientists collected all available videos and calibrated those with clear reference points. This led to the identification of a ‘predicted’ strewn-field in southern Botswana and paved the way for a meteorite hunt that is still ongoing (at time of submission).
