An asteroid less than a meter in diameter was detected above Ontario, Canada on Saturday, November 19, before it dropped meteorites as it struck Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that this is the sixth object to be detected in space before its impact on Earth with the last one being detected in March this year.
The global asteroid warning system saw the small meteoroid before it hit Earth. Professional and amateur astronomers started discussing the event in the early hours of November 20 that a meteor is on its way to Earth and that they should immediately set up their telescopes to view the spectacle in the sky.
Sixth Space Rock Spotted Before Hitting Earth
Astronomer David Rankin at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona spotted the mini asteroid, according to SpaceWeather.com. Subsequent observations from other astronomers confirmed that the fireball is coming from the direction of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and was heading to Earth.
NASA said that there are only three hours after the asteroid, dubbed C8FF042, was first detected before it sliced through the sky above Canada and then landed on Lake Ontario. This is the sixth case of an asteroid being found before impact. In March, a Hungarian astronomer detected the fifth one as he saw a bigger space rock only two hours before it burned up above the north Atlantic Ocean.
Eyewitnesses from Canada reported seeing a bright fireball lit up the sky on Saturday at 3:27 EST (0827 GMT), Space.com reported. Meteor and web cameras have also captured some views of the fireball, like one video sequence that shows the streak of light passing behind the CN Tower in Toronto.
Radar stations tracked the meteorites from an altitude of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) to 0.53 miles (0.850 km) where the fragments likely fell. NASA said that most of the fragments likely fell into Lake Ontario while some pieces could have landed near the towns of Grimsby and McNab. Meanwhile, the American Meteor Society received 59 reports of fireball sightings.
Recovering Fragments From the Fireball
Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair in Planetary Small Bodies, said in a statement via Western News that the remarkable event will provide clues about the makeup and strength of small asteroids, and data from telescopic measurements will inform scientists of how they break up in the atmosphere, which is important knowledge for planetary defense.
The last part of studying this cosmic event is by recovering meteorites from the fireball and researchers are requesting residents to be on the lookout for fragments from the fireball.
Camera records and weather radar that tracked the falling debris of the fireball show that it certainly made it to the ground near or east of Grimsby. Recovering these fragments is needed to complete the story and find out what kind of material was the asteroid made up of. Astronomers compared it to a sample return mission, although this time the sample fell on Earth.
Meteorites can be recognized by their dark exterior with a fusion crust that is only a millimeter deep, covering a gray stony interior. They are usually denser than normal rock and are often attracted to a magnet because of their heavy metal content. They are not dangerous but it would be best to put them in plastic wrap and wrap them in aluminum foil.
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