On the Pre-impact Orbital Evolution of 2018 LA, Parent Body of the Bright Fireball Observed over Botswana on 2018 June 2

TL;DR

This study investigates the pre-impact orbital evolution of asteroid 2018 LA and its potential links to similar near-Earth objects using N-body simulations, revealing chaotic trajectories and possible dynamical groupings.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed orbital evolution analysis of 2018 LA and identifies potential related objects, enhancing understanding of small asteroid trajectories before impact.

Findings

2018 LA has a chaotic orbital evolution with close encounters to planets.

Several objects share similar orbits, suggesting possible dynamical groupings.

Orbital configurations repeat annually, indicating periodic encounter patterns.

Abstract

On 2018 June 2, meteoroid 2018 LA became the third natural body ever to be observed before entering our atmosphere ---small asteroids 2014 AA and 2008 TC3 had stricken the Earth on 2014 January 2 and 2008 October 7, respectively. Here, we explore the pre-impact orbital evolution of 2018 LA and investigate the possible presence of known NEOs moving in similar orbits using N-body simulations and the D-criteria. We identify several objects moving in orbits similar to that of 2018 LA and focus on three of them: (454100) 2013 BO73, which is the largest of the group and a PHA, 2016 LR, and 2018 BA5, which follows a path very close to that of 2018 LA in terms of semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclination. All these objects could be part of a dynamical grouping and their orbital evolution is rather chaotic, experiencing close encounters with Venus, the Earth-Moon system, and Mars. NEO encounters take place at the node and, on the short-term, the relative positions of our planet in its orbit around the Sun repeat every year. Besides the bright fireball observed over Botswana on 2018 June 2, three other bolides were observed early in June in recent years: Crete on 2002 June 6, Washington State on 2004 June 3, and Reisadalen on 2007 June 7.