In the wee morning hours on Sunday (Jan. 21), a tiny asteroid came hurtling through the sky and smashed into Earth’s atmosphere near Berlin, producing a bright but harmless fireball visible for miles around.
Such sightings typically occur a few times a year — but this one was unique because it was first detected by scientists roughly three hours before impact — only the eighth time that researchers have spotted one of these space rocks before it hit.
The asteroid, dubbed 2024 BXI, was first discovered by self-proclaimed asteroid hunter Krisztián Sárneczky, an astronomer at the Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory in Hungary.
He identified the cosmic rock using the 60-cm Schmidt telescope at the observatory. Shortly after the space rock’s discovery, NASA gave a detailed prediction of where and when the meteor would strike.
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“Heads Up: A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless fireball west of Berlin near Nennhausen shortly at 1:32am CET.
Overseers will see it if it’s clear!” NASA tweeted on the night of Jan. 20.
Continue here: Live Science
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