Fresh meteorite fragment recovered in Botswana

July 6 (UPI) -- Scientists have found a fresh meteorite fragment on a game reserve in Botswana, a landlocked nation in Southern Africa.

The fragment belongs to asteroid 2018 LA and was recovered on June 23, according to a news release from the University of Helsinki.

Asteroid 2018 LA was discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, operated by the University of Arizona, eight hours before it plunged into Earth's atmosphere. The discovery marked only the third time an Earth-bound asteroid has been identified ahead of time.

"This was a much smaller object than we are tasked to detect and warn about," Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer at NASA Headquarters, said in a news release. "However, this real-world event allows us to exercise our capabilities and gives some confidence our impact prediction models are adequate to respond to the potential impact of a larger object."

Several hours after its discovery, the boulder-sized asteroid disintegrated in the skies above Southern Africa. A bright fireball was witnessed by onlookers across the region.

Scientists in the United States and Finland calculated the likely landing area for meteorite fragments. Researchers from the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Botswana Geoscience Institute and the University of Botswana's Okavango Research Institute scoured the area for five days.

Peter Jenniskens, researcher at the NASA-sponsored SETI Institute in California, and local park rangers assisted in the search and Botswanan geologist Lesedi Seitshiro spotted the fragment. The search for meteorites is ongoing.