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That meteor, now referred to as 2022 WJ1, was first seen by the Catalina Sky Survey at around midnight EST on the 19th (the time zone in which it wound up landing). Catalina is one of the most prolific discoverers of asteroids and is an essential link in the planetary defense chain. A NASA press release information the steps that come afterward that result in an effective landing prediction.
2022 WJ1 was pretty small– only about 1 m wide, and postured no actual risk to anyone or anything on the ground. However the planetary defense network is designed to catch much larger possible threats. The truth that it reacted with such speed reveals that it is becoming a growing number of capable and will be much more most likely to discover any potentially disastrous occasions, such as the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013, which triggered 1400 injuries and around $33 million in home damage..
Humanity is getting better a planetary defense. And a group of amazing human beings proved it last week when the planetary defense community jumped into action to properly track and forecast exactly where a relatively little meteor would fall on November 19th.
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That meteor, now understood as 2022 WJ1, was very first discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey at around midnight EST on the 19th (the time zone in which it ended up landing). Catalina is one of the most prolific discoverers of asteroids and is an essential link in the planetary defense chain. 2022 WJ1 was quite little– just about 1 m large, and presented no actual threat to anybody or anything on the ground. That last event dropped plenty of meteorites throughout the desert, and there are likely some from 2022 WJ1 spread around southern Ontario.
UT video on how we track asteroids.
Catalina continued tracking the asteroid throughout the night, but several other astronomers, consisting of a group of beginners from the Farpoint Observatory in Eskridge, Kansas, a little southwest of Topeka. Over 600 asteroids have actually been discovered there, so this is another feather in their cap.
As the data continued streaming in, there were a total of 46 observations made from the 2022 WJ1 in the three hours following its preliminary discovery. The University of Hawaii made the last observation about a half hour prior to its forecasted effect.
At the anticipated time– 3:27 AM, and at the forecasted place– southern Ontario, Canada, a fireball illuminated the sky and was captured on myriad door web cams and other recording gadgets, resulting in some pretty remarkable videos. After the reality, a lot of other astronomers hung around evaluating the asteroids trajectory, even going so far as to develop designs that revealed how the Earths actual gravitational pull triggered 2022 WJ1 to fall to its firey doom– or sign up with the larger Earths biosphere, depending upon how you take a look at it.
Door webcam of 2022 WJ1 spotting throughout the sky at 3:27 AM on November 19th. Credit– Jim Geary YouTube Channel.
The Chelyabinsk meteor was 20 times the size of 2022 WJ1 and, therefore, would have been much easier to see if astronomers had the very same resources in place as they do now. Strolling through how 2022 WJ1 was tracked helps light up just how much planetary detection has enhanced.
After Catalina initially detected the meteor, it immediately sent out a notification to the Minor Planet Center, a central information hub for small bodies surrounding the Earth. From there, the entry was gotten by immediately Scout, a program from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which attempted to examine the likelihood that 2022 WJ1 would impact the Earth..
Its initial evaluation, posted 7 minutes after the asteroid was at first found, revealed a 25% chance of hitting the Earth. Thats where the remainder of the planetary defense community came in.
And a group of extraordinary humans proved it last week when the planetary defense community jumped into action to precisely track and anticipate exactly where a relatively small meteor would fall on November 19th.
Fraser talks about tracking of 2022 WJ1.
As it didnt trigger any damage, and there were no security implications, this was an exceptional workout in the search for potentially dangerous asteroids, and we do appear to be improving at it. This sixth detection comes fourteen years after the first detection of 2008 TC3 but less than a year after the last detection of 2022 EB5 over the Nubian desert earlier this year. That last occasion dropped lots of meteorites throughout the desert, and there are likely some from 2022 WJ1 scattered around southern Ontario. Now its up to the meteorite hunters to discover them, as the planetary defense community provided an exceptional running start.
Discover more: NASA– NASA Program Predicted Impact of Small Asteroid Over Ontario, CanadaUT– NASAs New Asteroid Impact Monitoring System Comes OnlineUT– Astronomers Have Found More Than 30,000 Near-Earth Asteroids … so farUT– Three New Potentially Hazardous Asteroids Discovered, Including a huge one That Measures 1.5 km Across.
Lead Image: Time-lapse of 2022 WJ1 as it fell throughout the sky in southern Ontario.Credit– Robert Weryk.
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