Astronomers were able to see an asteroid before it slammed into Earth.
The Catalina Sky Survey discovered an asteroid four hours before it hit the ground. A network of telescopes and scientists worked together to calculate the exact location of the asteroid.
Excellent news, this is it. The world's asteroid monitoring techniques are getting better, giving us a better chance of protecting ourselves from falling space rocks that might actually do some damage.
There is a lot of not-space in space. In the vicinity of Earth, there are a lot of asteroids that travel in a way that brings them close to Earth. Over 30,000 asteroids have been cataloged at this time.
Scientists believe that most of the asteroids are small enough to not pose a threat within the next century.
It's good to stay on top of what's happening in the space around us, and to hone our abilities to find hidden objects.
The Mount Lemmon Observatory, part of the Catalina network, was the place where the detection was made. Astronomers were able to confirm the detection and report it to the IAU Minor Planet Center.
The four images were enough to calculate the asteroid's trajectory across the sky, with multiple impact monitoring programs finding that the rock had a 20% chance of hitting the US
Scientists were able to give a time and a location with follow-up observations. There was a bright green fireball over the Golden Horseshoe region in Southern Ontario, Canada.
The rock was not a danger even though it was the first ever predicted to fall over a populated area. It was the smallest asteroid to have been observed before entering the atmosphere.
Smaller pieces fell into the water of Lake Ontario after it turned into a flaming bolide. Scientists hope to retrieve some of the small pieces of the meteorite to study the asteroid further.
The previous five asteroids that were detected prior to impact were 2008; AA at 3 meters across; LA at 3 meters across; and MO at 6 meters across.
The detection of 2022 WJ1, and the global coordination that tracked it, are a testament to how sensitive the technology has grown.
There is a chance to study what happens to asteroids when they enter Earth's atmosphere.
The parent meteorite was seen telescopically before hitting the atmosphere. Peter Brown is an astronomer and physicist at the University of Western Ontario.
This remarkable event will provide clues about the makeup and strength of small asteroids which will inform our understanding of how small asteroids break up in the atmosphere.
It should be dark, with a thin and fresh fusion crust and a gray interior. The scientists want suspicious fragments to be reported to the museum.
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