A Tiny Asteroid was Discovered Mere Hours Before it Crashed Into the Earth

A small asteroid was detected two hours before it hit Earth. The space rock was only 10 feet wide and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere at 21:22 UTC on March 11.

Astronomers can detect asteroids of that size heading towards our planet, as well as determine the asteroid's trajectory and precisely predicted its impact location, but the last-minute nature of the discovery causes a pause. What if it had been bigger?

Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles every day, but they never reach the ground, so we can enjoy the stars and meteor showers.

An asteroid about the size of a car hits Earth's atmosphere and creates a fireball, which burns up before reaching the surface. Any asteroids less than 20 meters will burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. Smaller meteorites that cause little or no damage would be the ones that would survive. Not always.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite was the size of a six-story building. About 1,200 people were injured when it unleashed a shock wave that shattered windows and collapsed buildings.

The impact area would likely be damaged if a rock larger than 25 meters was to hit Earth.

It could cause a lot of damage. Every 2,000 years or so, a meteorite the size of a football hits Earth, according to NASA. There was a close call in the year of 2019, where a small asteroid was detected just hours before it made a close pass by Earth. That is less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon. An asteroid of that size could wipe out the entire city.