Small asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere
For the 10th time ever and the 3rd time just this year, astronomers discovered an asteroid right before it impacted Earth’s atmosphere. The latest was a small space rock – perhaps 1 meter in diameter – which currently has the name A11dc6D. With just a handful of observations, the ATLAS survey briefly tracked the space rock before it harmlessly impacted the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.
The little asteroid would have led to a fireball – or exceptionally bright meteor – in the sky about 1,000 kilometers (683 miles) off the California coast. And indeed, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) reported a fireball at 10:54 UTC on October 22, 2024. The energy released from the impact with our atmosphere would have been a little less than that from the asteroid that hit above the Philippines on September 4, 2024.
How does the CNEOS see these fireballs over remote areas of the globe? With satellites used for mapping lightning. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) captures both lightning and bright meteors that strike our atmosphere.
Peter Brown, a meteor scientist at Western University in Ontario, Canada, reported the impact on X:
Fireball just reported on CNEOS page impacting 1000 km off the coast of California today at 1054 UT. Energy of 0.15 kT corresponds roughly to a 1m diameter object. @IMOmeteors @amsmeteors
— Peter Brown (@pgbrown) October 23, 2024
This is now the 10th object for which an impact was predicted in advance. These events are becoming almost routine as surveys like ATLAS, Catalina and Pan-Starrs become more efficient. This is the third such telescopically detected object to hit Earth in 2024.
— Peter Brown (@pgbrown) October 23, 2024
A busy time for fireballs
Last night, October 21, was the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. Plus, last night there were hundreds of witnesses who captured video and reported seeing a fireball near the U.S.-Canada border around Lake Erie. This event happened at around 7 p.m. EDT (23 UTC) on October 21, 2024.
According to NASA:
Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles. About once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface.
So this 1-meter asteroid was pretty unremarkable, except that astronomers spotted it before impact. And with our increasing technology, this will become a more frequent occurrence.
If you capture a photo of a fireball or bright meteor, submit it to us!
Bottom line: A small asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere just after it was discovered on Tuesday, October 22, 2024. It impacted harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean.