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Submitted via IRC for Bytram
An asteroid hit Earth right after being spotted by telescope this week
An asteroid the size of a refrigerator was spotted by telescopes in Hawaii on Saturday, just before it collided with Earth's atmosphere and burned as a fireball in the sky due south of Puerto Rico. The harmless space rock, officially named 2019 MO, never had a chance of making it to the ground or doing much damage, as it was only about a tenth the size of the bolide that exploded in the atmosphere over Russia in 2013.
According to fireball and bolide data from NASA, our atmosphere is struck by a meteor this size or larger roughly once a year.
What's most interesting about 2019 MO, though, is the fact that it was spotted by telescopes beforehand. That's only happened four times in history, according to Italian amateur astronomer Ernesto Guido.
The other three times all happened in the last 12 years, including asteroid 2018 LA that made it all the way to the ground in Africa.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday July 02 2019, @05:30AM (1 child)
Apparently it wasn't a smart refrigerator....
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Funny) by inertnet on Tuesday July 02 2019, @08:34AM
So we'll never know how much beer it contained.