An asteroid is spotted 2 hours before it slams into the Earth at 11 miles per second – Interesting Engineering

It's such a rare occasion for astronomers to detect an asteroid before it impacts the Earth that only 4 asteroids had been spottedbefore they entered the Earth's atmosphere:2008 TC3, 2014 AA, 2018 LA, and 2019 MO. But now, it's been 5 with the discovery of 2022 EB5.

On March 11th, the astronomer Krisztin Srneczky observed a small rocky objectusing the Schmidt telescope at the Piszksteto Mountain Station. It was 2 hours later whenit crashed into Earths atmospherenorth of Iceland.

The asteroid is estimated to be 10 feet wide andmoved at a speed of 11 miles per second.

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The aftermath of 2022 EB5 is not certain, but it is believed that it either burned up in the atmosphere or fell into the Arctic Ocean. If it burned up, it is not known whether any residualfragments have made it to the ground or not, either.

The International Meteor Organization, on the other hand, is looking for information from anybody who may have witnessed 2022 EB5's dazzling meteor. A flash of light or a boom was observed by a few persons in Iceland. You can submit your report from this link if you think you've seen the meteor.

Most of the asteroids in the Solar system orbit the Sun in a vast ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This area called the Asteroid Belt is estimated to containmore than 200 asteroids that are larger than 60 miles in diameter. In addition to that, there are between 1.1 million and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 0.6 milesin diameter and millions of smaller ones, according to NASA.

Although big collisions are really rare, thousands of tiny meteorite fragments hit the Earth each year. Most of these occasions, however, are unanticipated and go unreported because they occur in wide swathes of uninhabited woodland or in the open waters of the oceans.

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An asteroid is spotted 2 hours before it slams into the Earth at 11 miles per second - Interesting Engineering

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