Asteroid that crashed into Earth was spotted just seven hours earlier

Object is just the seventh asteroid to be discovered before it hit Earth

An asteroid that crashed into the Earth’s atmosphere over the UK and France was spotted just hours before it crashed.

The world was given only seven hours warning that it was being approached by the one-meter asteroid, which burnt up safely over Europe on Monday morning.

But spotting it all was hailed as a triumph – and one that has only happened a handful of times before.

In all, the asteroid’s impact was only the seventh time that such an event has been predicted in advance.

That is a “sign of the rapid advancements in global asteroid detection capabilities”, said the European Space Agency, which was just one of a range of organisations scrambled to monitor the asteroid as it hurtled towards Earth.

From the beginning, those monitoring the asteroid were also able to predict that it was small at about one-meter across, and unlikely to cause any damage.

Spotting the asteroid in advance also meant that scientists around the world were able to watch it as flew towards Earth and lit up in our atmosphere.

A wide array of observatories were able to watch the event, according to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre, which tracks such objects as well as helping to ensure that scientists are aware of any approaches that might be of interest.

The impact was also monitored by devoted systems such as Nasa’s Scout and the European Space Agency’s Meerkat, both of which are used to monitor imminent impacts with Earth.

Of the seven asteroid impacts that were spotted and predicted in advance, two have now been found by the same person. Before he spotted the latest visitor, Krisztián Sárneczky also saw another asteroid that hit over the Arctic Ocean in March last year, and he has found hundreds of minor planets and other objects in all.

The latest asteroid also fell almost on the exact 10-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk explosion, which occurred over Russia on 15 February, 2023. It was the most powerful asteroid strike in more than 100 years, and left around 1,500 people injured as well as causing significant damage to buildings and blowing out windows.