2023 CX1 – Saint-Pierre-Le-Viger – 2023CX1-SPLV-Consortium
On February 12, 2023, a small asteroid on approach to Earth was discovered by K. Sarneczky at the Piszkéstető station of the Konkoly Observatory. This asteroid, later named 2023 CX1, was predicted to impact over Normandy, France, just 6.7 hours later—a rare event, as only eight asteroids have ever been detected before colliding with Earth. Fortunately, the meter-sized asteroid posed no threat, instead offering a unique opportunity to observe its atmospheric disintegration and recover meteorite fragments.
Prompt alerts from ESA and NASA, quickly disseminated by the International Meteor Organization and the FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel project, mobilized professional and citizen science networks worldwide. This rapid response led to the first targeted fireball observations, collecting a comprehensive dataset of the meteoroid’s atmospheric entry. These records, analyzed jointly by researchers from several countries, facilitated a quick determination of the meteorite landing location.
The FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel team, along with their collaborators, promptly arrived at the fall site, engaged with local residents, secured exploration permissions, and initiated field searches. With the help of numerous volunteers, the first Saint-Pierre-le-Viger meteorite was discovered within hours of the fall.
Today, the international collaboration between researchers and space enthusiasts continues to study this extraordinary event. To unravel the history of this small asteroid, we established the 2023 CX1 Consortium, an international and interdisciplinary research group dedicated to the Saint-Pierre-le-Viger meteorite.
Consortium Members
Members are listed under their primary role; however, many have contributed significantly to multiple aspects of the analysis.
Principal Investigators
Auriane Egal
Denis Vida
François Colas
Brigitte Zanda
Analysis & Consortium Coordination
Sylvain Bouley
Asma Steinhausser
Pierre Vernazza
Adrien Malgoyre
Peter Brown
Olivier Hernandez
Peter Jenniskens
Core Team FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel
Jérôme Gattaceca
Mirel Birlan
Jérémie Vaubaillon
Simon Jeanne
Lucie Maquet
Karl Antier
Simon Anghel
Pierre Beck
Asteroid Orbit, Size and Shape
Marco Micheli
Davide Farnocchia
Shantanu Naidu
Krisztián Sárneczky
András Pál
Nick Moskovitz
Theodore Kareta
Josef Hanuš
Maxime Devogèle
Fireball Optical Analysis
Jiří Borovička
Pavel Spurný
Hadrien Devillepoix
Fireball Seismo-Acoustic Analysis
Alexis Le Pichon
Gilles Mazet-Roux
Julien Vergoz
Luke McFadden
Jelle Assink
Läslo Evers
Jérôme Vergne
Airburst Simulations
Darrel Robertson
Dynamical Analysis
Paul Wiegert
Miroslav Brož
Michaël Marsset
Anthony Lagain
Patrick Shober
Meteorites’ classification
Ludovic Ferrière
Ioannis Baziotis
Meteorites Petrography and Chemical Composition
Jean-Alix Barrat
Matthieu Gounelle
Sylvain Pont
Pierre Sans-Jofre
Sebastiaan De Vet
Meteorites Noble Gas Analysis
Daniela Krietsch
Henner Busemann
Colin Maden
Lisa Maria Eckart
Meteorites Gamma-Spectrometry and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Pavel Povinec
Yvan Sýkora
Ivan Kontul’
Oscar Marchhart
Martin Martschini
Silke Merchel
Alexander Wieser
Data Acquisition and Reduction
Toni Santana-Ros
Luca Conversi
Francisco Ocaña
Luca Buzzi
Dan Alin Nedelcu
Adrian Sonka
Florent Losse
Philippe Dupouy
Korado Korlević
Dieter Husar
Jost Jahn
Damir Šegon
Mark McIntyre
Ralf Neubert
Sébastien Bouquillon
Targeted Fireball Observations and Strewn Field Search
Baillié Kévin
Bernard Christophe
Coudé Vincent
Danoix Frédéric
Dehouck Erwin
Desmars Josselin
Devillepoix Victoire
Devillepoix Jean-Louis
Patricia Devillepoix
Drossart Annick
Drossart Pierre
Dumont Claudine
Dumont Damien
Dumont Ellie
Axel Favre
Dumont Florent
Dumont Jean-Louis
Dumont Raphael
Feignon Jean-Guillaume
Greenway Andrew
Greenway Larry
Kieffer Bernard
Labenne Jim
Labenne Luc
Laurent Juliette
Leblanc Michael
Leblanc-Rappe Loïs
Legault Thierry
Leroy Arnaud
Leroy Clément
Jean-Claude Leroy
Loubiere Claire
Maillot Eric
Munsch Gilles
Rappe Géraldine
Richard Dominique
Trangosi Renaud
Trotel Yann
Uzan Jean-Philippe
Wright Paul
Thank you to all the FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel participants who contributed during the search campaign between February 13 and March 2023. If you have participated in field research and would like your name to be included in this list, please contact us at vigie-ciel@mnhn.fr. Only the names of those who have given their consent are mentioned above.
Many thanks to Bil Bungay, an English documentary filmmaker, who bought the largest fragment of the Saint-Pierre-Le-Viger meteorite found by independent meteorite hunters and donated it to the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle for study and conservation.
FRIPON International Team
Spain : Josep Maria Trigo-Rodriguez – Enrique Herrero
UK : Jim Rowe – Andrew Smedley – Ashley King
Italy : Daniele Gardiol – Dario Barghini
Netherlands : Sebastiaan de Vet – Detlef Koschny
Canada : Olivier Hernandez, Auriane Egal et Mathieu Forcier
Romania : Dan Alin Nedelcu – Mirel Birlan – Simon Anghel
Germany : Björn Poppe
Belgium : Hervé Lamy – Emmanuel Jehin
Andino : Sebastien Bouquillon – Katherine Vieira – Hebe Cremades – Rene A. Mendez – Andres Jordan
Maroc : Chennaoui Hasnaa – Zouhair Benkhaldoun
Senegal : Salma Sylla
Additional information:
https://www.vigie-ciel.org/tag/saint-pierre-le-viger/
https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/fall-and-recovery-asteroid-2023-cx1
Meteorites found after observation of asteroid 2023CX1 fireball above Normandy, France
