Astronomers managed to discover another asteroid just few hours before it struck Earth’s atmosphere. According to reports, a space rock roughly three metres wide entered our planet’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday. According to NASA’s Center For Near Earth Object Studies data, the asteroid named 2024 UQ impacted the atmosphere about 1000 km from the California coast.
Scientists had predicted that the energy released from the asteroid upon its atmospheric impact would have been less than the one that hit the Philippines sky earlier in September.
Peter Brown, a meteor scientist at Western University in Ontario, said on X that the asteroid impact of the rock first observed by the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii.
“This is now the 10th object for which an impact was predicted in advance. These events are becoming almost routine as surveys like ATLAS, Catalina and Pan-Starrs become more efficient. This is the third such telescopically detected object to hit Earth in 2024,” he stated.
Earlier on September 4, an asteroid just one metre wide entered the atmosphere as a brilliant fireball. Named 2024 RW1, the asteroid was discovered just a few hours before its impact. Several videos of the asteroid streaking across the sky went viral on social media.
