symbolic picture
No matter how much progress human science has made, many asteroids are hitting the Earth, dodging the alert system. The special thing is that such incidents have increased in the last one year. The latest case is on October 22, when an asteroid was caught by the alert system and hit the Earth just three hours later. However, this asteroid hit the Earth over the Pacific Ocean near California and it did not cause any harm to anyone.
This asteroid was named 2024 UQ. It was discovered just two hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere. Its diameter was only 3 feet (1 meter). So it was not a big threat. It was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Late Warning System (ATLAS) on October 22. ATLAS is a four-telescope survey based in Hawaii to observe near-Earth objects. Within hours of detection, 2024 UQ burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean near California.
European Space Agency statement
On behalf of the European Space Agency, it was said, “The ATLAS survey had received such pictures, which showed an object whose probability of colliding with the Earth was very high. The position of this object was at the edge of two close fields. Because of this It was detected very late. It entered the atmosphere and started burning up. By the time astrometric impact monitoring systems predicted it would hit the Earth, it had already hit the Earth.
Third such incident in a year
According to ESA, this was the third time this year when the astronomical agency could not detect anything hitting the Earth in time. Till now this has happened only 10 times, but this is the third such incident in the span of a year.
Additional investment necessary in track system
This close call serves to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of modern track systems and makes an argument for continued investment in early detection technology. Despite being harmless in the extreme, this situation focuses Earth’s continued improvement efforts with respect to space surveillance. The possibility of potentially dangerous space rocks hitting Earth undetected is scary and more investment is needed to reduce it.
