small asteroid struck the Earth’s atmosphere above Iceland last Friday, just two hours after it was spotted by an astronomer.On March 11, Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky, from the Piszkéstető Observatory near Budapest, spotted a small asteroid headed toward our planet.Closer and closer, faster and faster.
The impacted asteroid 2022 EB5 on 1 sec images taken at Piszkéstető Observatory with the 0.60m Schmidt telescope on Mar 11, 20:44, 20:50, 20:55, 21:05 and 21:11 UT (T-38, 32, 27, 17 and 11 min). #2022EB5 pic.twitter.com/WMbS2uNVld— Krisztián Sárneczky (@sarneczky) March 15, 2022The asteroid, now dubbed 2022 EB5 by the Minor Planet Center, was about 10 feet wide, the approximate size of a grand piano.It was spotted late because it was moving so quickly, close to 18 kilometres per second, reports the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Near-Earth Objects Coordination Centre.Impact!
When 2022 EB5 struck the Earth north of Iceland this morning, it became the 5th asteroid to be discovered prior to impacting Earth.
pic.twitter.com/kYsQ40uuFq— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) March 12, 2022In a news release, the space agency said that 30 minutes after the discovery, data showed the asteroid was just two hours away from colliding with Earth’s atmosphere.ESA also said this discovery was the fifth time that an asteroid has been observed before impacting the atmosphere.If the asteroid had been larger, it would have been possible to detect it and track it much earlier, and at a much greater distance.