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NASA predicted the location and time of the impact and the phenomenon was recorded by a camera in Leipzig. The asteroid was about 1 meter wide and probably disintegrated about 50 km from Berlin, possibly leaving meteorites on Earth.
This is the eighth time in history that scientists have discovered an asteroid just before it hits Earth. Sárneczky, who has previously discovered hundreds of asteroids, was also the first to discover asteroid 2022 EB5 about two hours before it entered the atmosphere.
According to the European Space Agency, 99 percent of asteroids smaller than 30 m have not yet been discovered. Small asteroids are difficult to detect, and some can hide in sunlight, as was the case with a meteorite that crashed over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, causing damage and injuring more than 1,600 people.
Space agencies are developing new technologies to detect asteroids, including NASA’s NEO Surveyor satellite, scheduled for 2027, and ESA’s NEOMIR satellite, expected to launch after 2030. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will become operational in 2025, is expected to make a significant contribution to asteroid searches, having doubled the number of known objects in its first months of operation.
Source: Live Science
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