Photo: Getty Images
A small asteroid heading toward Earth was discovered just two hours before it slammed into the atmosphere. Astronomer Krisztián Sárneczk was observing the sky at the Konkoly Observatory in Hungary and spotted the ten-foot-wide asteroid.
As astronomers were examining the path of the space rock, they realized it was on a collision course for the sky above Iceland and was just two hours away. The asteroid, named 2022 EB5, was traveling at a speed of 39,600 mph.
Sárneczk described the asteroid to Space.com as "a star-like, fast-moving object shifting against the background stars. Like a normal near-Earth asteroid."
Luckily, the asteroid was too small to cause any damage and completely burned up in the atmosphere, creating a fireball as it hurtled towards the ground.
While tiny asteroids hit the Earth once every ten months or so, it is rare for them to be discovered ahead of time. 2022 EB5 was just the fifth asteroid identified before hitting the Earth.
"Tiny asteroids like 2022 EB5 are numerous, and they impact into the atmosphere quite frequently – roughly every 10 months or so," said Paul Chodas, the director of Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "But very few of these asteroids have actually been detected in space and observed extensively prior to impact, basically because they are very faint until the last few hours, and a survey telescope has to observe just the right spot of sky at the right time for one to be detected."
Amateur astronomer Tony Dunn shared an animation showing the path of the asteroid as it slammed into the Earth.