Asteroid The Size Of A Grand Piano Strikes Earth And We Knew Exactly Where And When Says NASA
Asteroid 2022 EB5 struck the ocean Monday, but NASA had known exactly where for over two hours (this … [+]
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Some said it was the size of a stepladder. Others said it was more like half the size of a giraffe. Either way, on March 11, 2022 at 21:22 TUC a tiny asteroid struck the ocean 300 miles/470 kilometers off Norway’s Jan Mayen Island.
Did the 6 1/2 feet/2 meters-wide asteroid—about the size of a grand piano and officially called 2022 EB5—slip through the surveillance net?
No, says NASA, who claims its discovery a mere two hours before it struck the Artic Ocean marks the fifth time that any asteroid has been observed before impacting into the atmosphere.
Asteroid 2022 EB5 was observed 14 times during 40 minutes by K. Sarneczky at the Piszkéstető Observatory in northern Hungary, who reported it to the Minor Planet Center.
NASA’s “Scout” impact hazard assessment system then calculated its trajectory, revealed it to be destined to strike Earth’s atmosphere, and thus alerted both the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
“We were able to determine the possible impact locations, which initially extended from western Greenland to off the coast of Norway,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who developed Scout. “As more observatories tracked the asteroid, our calculations of its trajectory and impact location became more precise.”
As Scout predicted, 2022 EB5 entered the atmosphere southwest of Jan Mayen with infrasound detectors confirming the impact at the predicted time.
Tiny asteroids like 2022 EB5 get bright enough to see in the night sky only a couple of hours before they either strike Earth’s atmosphere or make their closest approach. NASA expects one the size of 2022 EB5 about every 10 months.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
