Astronomers Spotted a Car-Size Asteroid Just Hours Before Impact

[Judi Lynn]

By Laura Geggel, Associate Editor | June 27, 2019 11:25am ET

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Astronomers discovered a car-size asteroid hours before it slammed into Earth and burned up in the atmosphere this past weekend, news sources report.

Scientists in Hawaii initially spotted the asteroid, named 2019 MO, on Saturday (June 22). Soon after, the heavenly traveler broke apart in large fireball as it hit the atmosphere about 240 miles (380 kilometers) south of San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the University of Hawaii.

This is only the fourth time in history that scientists have spotted an asteroid so close to impact. The other three detections all occurred within the past 11 years, including 2008 TC3, 2014 AA and 2018 LA, which landed as a meteorite in southern Africa just 7 hours after it was noticed by scientists. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]

Unlike 2018 LA, Earth's latest visitor was harmless and didn't make it to the ground. But the asteroid, 13 feet (4 meters) long, still made a spectacular fireball that was equivalent to about 6,000 tons of exploding TNT, according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which is run by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/65810-car-size-asteroid-hits-earth.html

Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122864795

[BlueJac]

1. Frightening to think about a bigger one!