Asteroid 2018 LA, On Impact Course With Earth, Has Been Observed Just Hours Before Burning In The Atmosphere

Asteroid 2018 LA, On Impact Course With Earth, Has Been Observed Just Hours Before Burning In The Atmosphere
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A tiny asteroid, called Asteroid 2018 LA, was detected on Saturday morning, as it was heading towards the Earth, with just a couple of hours before the space rock collided with the Earth’s atmosphere, reported NASA, cited by CNET.

This asteroid, dubbed as Asteroid 2018 LA or ZLAF9B2, was only 6 feet (2 meters) in size and it was initially observed from the Catalina Sky Survey, in Arizona, in the United States.

“The discovery of Asteroid 2018 LA is only the third time an asteroid has been found to be on an impact trajectory. It’s also the second time the impact site was predicted long before the event,” explained Paul Chodas, the leader of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) owned by NASA.

Luckily for us, the asteroid was small, as mentioned above, and burnt up in the atmosphere without causing damages.

The Asteroid 2018 LA enter in the Earth’s atmosphere has been caught on video

Astronomers projected that asteroid 2018 LA will be entering the Earth’s atmosphere at some point along a passageway that extends from Africa through the Indian Ocean to Papua New Guinea.

Also, a camera in South Africa has apparently captured on video the explosion of the small asteroid as it was penetrating our planet’s atmosphere.

YouTube video

NASA did it again!

This is not the first time a space object goes undetected until the last moment. However, NASA excuses itself saying that “this was a much smaller object than we were tasked with detecting and warning,” according to Lindley Johnson from the NASA’s planetary defense.

But, also a small space object has been the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, in Russia, back in 2013, and caused a shockwave that blew thousands of windows into pieces, causing small injuries in residents.

On the other hand, a much bigger asteroid than Asteroid 2018 LA that could’ve caused real damage has whizzed near our planet a couple of months ago. That one also went unnoticed until it passed by Earth.


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