Reported by sciencealert, Friday (11/25/2022), WJ1 is too small to cause major damage. However, its detection suggests that asteroid tracking techniques around the world are improving, giving us a better chance of protecting ourselves from falling space rocks.
The detection of 2022 WJ1 was made on November 19, 2022 from the Mount Lemmon Observatory. The observatory continued to monitor the object, took four images that allowed astronomers to confirm the detection, and reported them to the IAU Minor Planet Center within the hour.
Those four images are enough to count trajectory of the asteroid across the sky. Various impact monitoring programs have found that the rock has about a 20% chance of sinking somewhere on the North American continent.
Follow-up observations allow scientists to refine the measurements so they can predict when and where an asteroid will hit. According to the watch forecast, 2022 WJ1 is seen hurtling across the sky as a bright green fireball, over the Golden Horseshoe region of southern Ontario, Canada.
The find is the first meteor expected to fall in a heavily populated area. However, the asteroid is harmless. The asteroid is about a meter in size, making it the smallest asteroid ever observed before entering the atmosphere to date.
Upon entering the atmosphere, the asteroid turned into a flaming fireball and shattered, falling to Earth in small pieces that mostly fell into the water of Lake Ontario.
The detection of 2022 WJ1 just before it hit Earth is a remarkable testament to how sensitive this technology is. The observations are also a rare opportunity to study what happens to asteroids as they enter Earth’s atmosphere.
