Two NEO Asteroids in close proximity to the Earth. Image credit: Royal Museums, Greenwich.
Jacqueline Fazekas with the Catalina Sky Survey, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of Steward Observatory, the University of Arizona, discovered the asteroid just hours ago, about eight hours before its predicted impact. The asteroid has been given the provisional designation CAQTDL2.
Why wasn’t the object detected earlier?
In two words: size and albedo. It’s approximately 1 meter in size with a low albedo (ability to reflect light). For example, the moon has an albedo of 7/100 or 0.07: only 7% of the incident light is reflected from the lunar surface. The greater the albedo, the more reflective it is. The albedo of this asteroid would be consistent with that of the moon and, given its very small size, it could easily have gone undetected.
NEO
The asteroid, identified as a NEO, a class of asteroids known as Near Earth Objects, is approximately 1 meter wide. According to the European Space Agency, it will strike Earth’s upper atmosphere today (September 4, 2024) over Luzon Island, The Philippines at around 16:46 UTC. That’s after midnight, tonight in the Philippines and 12:46 PM EDT, Wednesday, September 4, for observers on the Eastern Seaboard of North America.
It is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere and create a bright fireball for anyone watching! If you’re in the Philippines, go outside and look up at around 12:46 AM, PHST on Thursday, September 5.
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