An asteroid hit Earth, but worryingly NASA discovered it just two hours before it crashed. Find out what it says about NASA’s planetary defense system
Incredibly, an asteroid hit Earth last week. The news itself is not shocking as many pebble-sized asteroids are pulled by Earth’s gravity and burn up in the atmosphere. What is really surprising is that NASA was able to detect the asteroid just two hours before it crashed to Earth. Worryingly, this won’t give NASA any time to react or contain the asteroid. On the brighter side, however, the whole incident weaves a remarkable story of an astronomer’s detection skill and luck as well as the technological prowess of an important instrument in the field. NASA’s planetary defense system is called Scout. And if scientists believe it, it represents unprecedented progress in Earth’s preparedness against a potentially catastrophic asteroid strike. Yes, never have.
An astronomer is the crux of the mission
Krisztian Sarneczky looks at the stars on March 11 at the Konkoly Observatory near Budapest. Looking across the night sky, he was scanning for any unidentified objects. And suddenly he caught sight of a dimly lit object moving at an amazingly fast speed. Within half an hour, he was certain that the asteroid was headed for Earth. But instead of being scared, he was ecstatic. This is mainly due to the size of the asteroid, about 6 feet, which makes it harmless. But also because he just discovered a new near-Earth object (NEO). “I have dreamed of such a discovery many times, but it seems impossible,” he told The New York Times.
Within an hour of discovering the asteroid later named 2022 EB5, he shared his findings and data with NASA. This is where the Scout system comes into play.
The Power of NASA Scouts in Planetary Defenses
Scout is a piece of software that uses astronomers’ observations and data as they report near-Earth objects and figure out where and when their impacts might occur. It was developed and launched by Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 2017. Normally, it can take up to several days of observations to confirm an asteroid’s identity. new crystal. But when an asteroid sneaks up to Earth as quietly as 2022 EB5 did, Earth may not have a few days to react. Fortunately, this asteroid is small, but if it is only 100 meters wide, it will cause disaster for humanity.
That’s why Scout, after receiving the information from Sarneczky, quickly analyzed the data and predicted not only when it would fall, but also where it would hit the Earth. The asteroid followed the predictions and collided with Earth near the east coast of Greenland at 5:23 pm ET on March 11 (2:53 a.m. IST, March 12).
For the future, this highlights how NASA’s planetary defense system is capable of analyzing and predicting an asteroid’s path even over a short period of time. It also means that if the size of the asteroid is larger, NASA can calculate its orbit and send an alert to the relevant authorities.
