A newly discovered asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and will hit our atmosphere in just hours.
The asteroid, designated COWECP5, is forecasted to streak through the sky over Eastern Siberia at 11:14 am ET.
Scientists say the small space rock, measuring 27 inches in diameter, is expected to burn up in the atmosphere and poses no threat to humans on the ground.
NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System spotted the asteroid. The system was designed to give scientists up to a week’s notice of impending asteroids.
It was detected seven hours before it is due to hit, which is only the 12th time scientists have accurately reported an asteroid before it struck.
This event will also marks the fourth asteroid to hit Earth’s atmosphere this year.
The NASA-funded Kitt Peak National Observatory, a project that tracks near-Earth objects, also spotted the asteroid early Tuesday.
Richard Moissl, the head of the ESA’s planetary defense office, said Kitt Peak’s Aegis system had already calculated the asteroid’s ‘impact corridor.’
The US Navy uses the Aegis system to identify air and surface threats through radar technology and computer programs. According to Lockheed Martin, it is ‘the most capable multi-mission combat system deployed in the world today. ‘
Moissl said in a post on X that the system predicts the asteroid will enter the atmosphere about 124 miles east of Lensk, but this is based on its current projected trajectory.
Alan Fitzsimmons at Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland told New Scientist that the asteroid won’t pose a risk to people on the ground.
‘It’s a small one, but it will still be quite spectacular,’ Fitzsimmons said.
‘It will be dark over the impact site, and for several hundreds of kilometers around, there’ll be a very impressive, very bright fireball in the sky.’
Scientists have assured that the asteroid’s small size means it will not do any damage when it hits the ground and there is no need for people to evacuate the area.
According to a 2017 study, only asteroids that span at least nearly 60 feet in diameter are potentially lethal if they head toward Earth.
