NASA system predicts impact of small asteroid

A small asteroid hit Earth's atmosphere over the Norwegian Sea. Astronomers knew it was on a collision course, and they knew when and where it would happen.

Two hours before the asteroid made impact, an observatory in northern Hungary reported observations of the small object to the Minor Planet Center. The Minor Planet Center posted the object on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page in order to confirm it as a previously unknown asteroid.

The impact hazard assessment system of NASA took these early measurements to calculate the trajectory. The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office were alerted to the object on the Scout website after Scout determined that it was going to hit Earth's atmosphere. Scout is maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and searches the Minor Planet Center's database for new impactors. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office uses the calculation of every known asteroid to improve impact hazard assessments.

Scout only had 14 observations from one observatory to work with when it first identified the object as an impactor. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout, said that they were able to determine the impact locations.

The atmosphere southwest of Jan Mayen, a Norwegian island nearly 300 miles off the east coast of Greenland and northeast of Iceland, would be entered by 2022, according to Scout. At 5:23 pm. 2:30 p.m. As predicted by Scout, the impact occurred at the predicted time.

The size of the asteroid is thought to have been about 6 1/2 feet in length. The last few hours before an impact are when asteroids of this size get bright enough to be detected. The objects that the Planetary Defense Coordination Office is tasked with detecting and warning about are larger.

Paul Chodas, the director of CNEOS at JPL, said that there are many small asteroids and they impact into the atmosphere roughly every 10 months or so.

A large asteroid with a potential for harm would be found far away from Earth. NASA wants to keep track of such asteroids and calculate their trajectory in order to have enough time to notice a potential impact. This real-world event with a small asteroid allowed the planetary defense community to exercise capabilities and gave some confidence that the impact prediction models at CNEOS are capable of telling the response to a larger object.

Five small asteroids have been detected in space before hitting Earth. The first asteroid to be discovered and tracked before hitting Earth was 2008 TC3 which broke up in October 2008. There were hundreds of small meteorites over the Nubian Desert. More harmless objects will be detected before entering the atmosphere as surveys become more sophisticated.

More information: More information about CNEOS, asteroids, and near-Earth objects can be found at cneos.jpl.nasa.gov and www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch Citation: NASA system predicts impact of small asteroid (2022, March 15) retrieved 17 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-nasa-impact-small-asteroid.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.