24.11.2022
The sixth asteroid impact we saw coming
On 19 November, asteroid 2022 WJ1 became one of the many small asteroids to strike Earth, but only the sixth we ever saw coming. For the second time this year, humankind predicted an asteroid impact. The ~1-m rock caused no harm and burnt up in the sky above Toronto as a striking fireball. The detection, warning and advance observations of this asteroid illustrate our rapidly increasing ability to warn of asteroid impacts, however small.
The initial discovery of asteroid 2022 WJ1 came from the Catalina Sky Survey – one of the major projects dedicated to the discovery and follow-up of near-Earth objects (NEOs) – at 04:53 UTC (05:53 CET) on 19 November 2022, just under four hours before impact.
The new asteroid was first imaged by Catalina’s 1.5-m Mt. Lemmon telescope, and once four observations were made it was reported to the Minor Planet Centre (MPC), 38 minutes after initial detection, at 05:31 UTC.