Asteroid hits Earth in "magnificent" spectacle over Europe

[Judi Lynn]

BY LI COHEN

FEBRUARY 13, 2023 / 12:41 PM / CBS NEWS

While the U.S. was busy celebrating the Super Bowl on Sunday night, Europeans had their own spectacle. Early Monday morning, a bright flash streaked across the skies over western Europe as an asteroid discovered just hours earlier made its impact with Earth's atmosphere.

The asteroid, dubbed Sar2667, was first detected on the evening of Feb. 12 by astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky in Hungary. He told Space.com that he found the asteroid during a routine near-Earth object hunt using a 2-foot telescope.

"It was immediately obvious that it was an NEO, but it wasn't particularly fast across the sky," he said, "as it was heading right towards us, and it was faint."

Link to tweet

After additional observatories confirmed its existence and trajectory, European Space Agency Operations put out a statement Sunday evening, saying the 1-meter meteoroid was expected to safely strike the atmosphere over northern France later in the night.

More:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asteroid-hits-earth-in-magnificent-spectacle-over-europe/

[intrepidity]

1. Oh boy, I bet the meteorite hunters are out on the ground today

Anyone know if anything has been recovered yet? With those videos, triangulation of debris field should be pretty accurate.

Fun stuff!

[Staph]

2. Shouldn't that be called a meteor, not an asteroid?

According to NASA,

What’s the difference between asteroids, comets and meteors? These space rocks each have their own unique attributes. But differences aside, these fascinating objects are all worthy of study. Just ask NASA JPL scientist Ryan Park and he’ll agree.

Well, they're all planetary objects orbiting the Sun. An asteroid is a small, rocky object and when seen in a telescope, it appears as a point of light. Most asteroids are found in a ring between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt.

Some asteroids are round, some are elongated, and some even have a satellite. A comet also orbits the Sun, but unlike an asteroid, it's composed of ice and dust. So, when a comet gets close to the Sun, its ice and dust content start to vaporize. So, when seen in a telescope, a comet appears fuzzy and/or has a tail.

So, what's a meteor? Well, let's start with a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a small piece of asteroid or a comet, typically pebble-sized, but could be a little smaller or a little larger, and often created from a collision.. When a meteoroid gets close to the Earth and enters the Earth's atmosphere, it's called a meteor. And a meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed. So it burns up and produces a streak of light called a shooting star. So, if you have seen a shooting star, you likely saw a meteor. And if a meteor survives the burn and lands on the ground, it's called a meteorite.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/what-s-the-difference-between-asteroids-comets-and-meteors-we-asked-a-nasa-scientist-episode

[Igel]

3. Meteoroids are up to 1 m.

It's pegged at about 1 m, so it was borderline.