A small asteroid hit Earth, crashing through the atmosphere over the Norwegian Sea on March 11, but before it hit, astronomers were able to track it using an early warning system.
In a statement, NASA said its “Scout” impact hazard assessment system took early measurements as soon as the asteroid, known as 2022 EB5, was spotted. As soon as it determined 2022 EB5 was going to hit Earth’s atmosphere, the system triggered an alert that went to both the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
NASA said its early warning system took only 14 observations in the 40 minutes after the asteroid was found before it determined it was heading toward our planet, and then was able to determine where it would land.
“We were able to determine the possible impact locations, which initially extended from western Greenland to off the coast of Norway,” Davide Farnocchia, an engineer who developed Scout, said in a statement. “As more observatories tracked the asteroid, our calculations of its trajectory and impact location became more precise.”
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Scout determined the asteroid would land nearly 300 miles off the coast of Greenland, and the asteroid did indeed land where and when Scout predicted it would.
2022 EB5 was estimated to be about 6.5 feet wide.
“Tiny asteroids like 2022 EB5 are numerous, and they impact the atmosphere quite frequently — roughly every 10 months or so,” Paul Chodas, director of JPL’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, told CNN. “But very few of these asteroids have actually been detected in space and observed extensively prior to impact, basically because they are very faint until the last few hours, and a survey telescope has to observe just the right spot of sky at the right time for one to be detected.”