An asteroid crashed into Canada, but astronomers expected it well

It was called WJ1 and was launched not far from Toronto on November 19 (Canada) according to NumeramaIt relays a contacted of the European Space Agency (ESA), a fall Asteroid Could have been perfectly planned.

The Catalina Sky Survey Observatory (University of Arizona, USA) detected the object four hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere. In the process, he alerted the Minor Planet Center, which is responsible for detecting asteroids.

A valid estimate

Scientists worked together to pinpoint the time and location of the point of impact. As they predicted, the asteroid crashed at about 3:30 a.m. in the area between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, near the Canada-US border.

“At precisely the scheduled time, the asteroid re-entered the atmosphere and became a spectacular fireball in the sky just above the announced location,” the ESA hailed. The one meter diameter rock was undamaged.

Science advances

Earlier this year, on March 11, a Hungarian astronomer had already predicted that an asteroid would fall in Iceland. However, this calculation is not trivial: for only the sixth time in history, the scientific world has been able to predict the place and time of impact of a celestial object.

“The detection, warning and improved observations of this asteroid illustrate our growing ability to warn of asteroid impacts, no matter how small,” ESA said.