A new asteroid was seen just before impact with Earth

On March 11, NASA astronomers were able to determine almost exactly where and when a new asteroid would hit the Earth’s atmosphere, in front of it made contact.

It’s only the fifth time in history an asteroid has been seen before it hit Earth, but it’s a sign that our early asteroid defense systems are working as hoped.

The discovery: On March 11, at 15:34 ET, Krisztián Sárneczky, an astronomer at the Hungarian Piszkéstető Observatory, saw a bright object moving rapidly across the sky.

He collected four observations and sent them to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), which tracks the asteroids, comets and other small celestial bodies in our solar system.

The MPC has posted observations of the object – now known as “2022 EB5” – on its public database, so other astronomers try to find the object and confirm that it was a new asteroid.

Sárneczky then sent 10 more observations to the MPC, which he also posted.

The surveillance: NASA has a system called “Scout”, which automatically searches the MPC database for objects that could affect the Earth or the Earth’s atmosphere.

Using Sárneczky’s observations, the scout was able to calculate the trajectory of the new asteroid – and find that it was on a collision course with Earth.

“Scout had only 14 observations over 40 minutes from an observatory to work with when he first identified the object as an impactor,” said Davide Farnocchia, a NASA engineer who developed Scout.

Global Effort: Not long after the MPC posted Sárneczky’s observations, other astronomers – both amateur and professional – began to make their own observations of the 2022 EB5.

These helped NASA reduce its predicted impact location and time to the atmosphere southwest of a Norwegian island named Jan Mayen, at 17:22 ET.

Infrared detectors later confirmed that the new asteroid had entered the atmosphere above the Norwegian Sea, as predicted at 17:23 ET – less than two hours after it was first seen in the night sky of Hungary.

Not a big one: The idea that NASA did not know that an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth until about an hour before impact sounds bad – but the detection of 2022 EB5 is actually quite remarkable.

Only four other asteroids have jee was discovered before impact, and while asteroids of 2022 EB5 its size – about 6.5 feet in diameter – hit our atmosphere once every 10 months or so, we rarely see them before impact.

“[V]Very few of these asteroids have actually been detected in space and extensively observed before impact, mainly because they are very weak until the last hours, “said Paul Chodas, director of the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

“[A] The survey telescope just needs to observe the right place of the sky at the right time to recognize one, “he added.

The new asteroid entered the atmosphere less than two hours after the first place.

What it means: Now NASA has more confidence that it could detect a larger asteroid – the kind that could causing serious damage to the earth.

“This real-world event with a very small asteroid allowed the planetary defense community to exercise skills and gave some confidence that the impact prediction models at CNEOS are highly capable of informing the response to the potential impact of a larger object,” he said. wrote NASA.

This detection will likely happen while the space rock was much further away from our planet, with impact days, months, or even years into the future – giving us enough time (hopefully) to try to stop the space rock, perhaps by distractions, cuts , or blush.

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