A “harmless” flare from a crumbling meteorite lit up Germany’s night sky on January 21 before plummeting onto Earth.
According to reports, astronomers and witnesses reported that Sar2736, the 2024 BX1 asteroid, impacted Nennhausen near Berlin at 1:30 in the morning. The International Astronomical Union said Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky found it hours before its impact. NASA verified the X event just twenty minutes before impact.
Meteorites from the asteroid may be discovered at Nennhausen, a farmland region. Scientific crews are already searching for these space keepsakes. According to SETI, the rocks are time capsules revealing our solar system’s past.
People from all around the world had the chance to see the rock plummeting to Earth and many shared videos of the event on social media. It marked the eighth time that an asteroid was found before striking Earth.
A space rock that landed north of Iceland in 2022 and another that detonated over the English Channel last year were both found by an expert asteroid hunter.
Giant asteroids that might hit Earth are being tracked by a team at NASA.
The next potentially catastrophic collision may occur in 2182 when the odds of a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu penetrating the atmosphere are 1 in 2,700.
As a disaster drill for preventing an asteroid from hurtling toward Earth in 2022, the space agency skillfully piloted a spaceship into an asteroid traveling at 15,000 mph.
According to NASA, the 2008 TC3 asteroid, which entered Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over Sudan in October of 2008, was the first of its kind to be found and monitored in advance of an impact. Hundreds of tiny meteorites were dispersed across the Nubian Desert by the asteroid, which was thirteen feet wide.
Congress has charged NASA with finding and monitoring Near Earth Objects over 400 feet in size, which might do substantial damage on Earth in the event of an impact. Those can be seen a lot further ahead of time than little ones.
