An asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and breaks through the Pacific Ocean; What happens next is amazing

Asteroids are celestial rocks that orbit the sun, just like planets. Their movement often brings them closer to Earthand so space agencies have dedicated themselves to constantly monitoring them. Their systems are equipped with the best technologies to not only detect, but also predict the trajectory of asteroids. This year alone, three asteroids managed to enter Earth’s atmosphere, bringing the total number of such incidents to ten. Although the consequences were largely invisible to the general public, scientists were able to gather important information after the events.
On Monday, October 21, 2024, asteroid named 2024 UQ, struck the atmosphere approximately 1,000 km off the California coast. According to reports, the space rock was approximately three meters wide and entered our planet’s atmosphere above the Earth’s surface. Pacific Ocean. Space agencies detected the approach of the asteroid as it was about to enter the atmosphere.

Using just a handful of observations, the ATLAS survey momentarily tracked the space rock, previously named A11dc6D, before it safely entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Asteroid exploded fireball which lit up the sky at 3:54 a.m. PDT on October 22, 2024. Scientists estimate that the energy released by an asteroid when it collides with the atmosphere will be lower than that of the one that entered the sky above Philippines earlier in September. Peter Brown, a meteorological scientist at Western University in Ontario, took to microblogging site X to report that the asteroid impact was first observed by the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii. In a series of posts, he explained: “This is now the 10th object whose impact has been predicted in advance. These events are becoming almost routine as surveys such as ATLAS, Catalina and Pan-STARRS become more efficient. This third such telescopically detected object will fall to Earth in 2024.”

Just last month, on September 5, 2024, another such asteroid was spotted just hours before it collided with Earth. On September 5, 2024, it exploded into a fireball over the Philippines. European Space Agency (ESA), a Philippine asteroid named 2024 RW1, was three feet long and was discovered by a NASA scientist using the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey observatory near Tucson, Arizona. While the recent asteroid was not noticed by people as it burst over the Pacific Ocean, the Philippine asteroid was noticed by many.
In August, another space object fell in South Africa for the first time in almost 51 years. The meteorite caused a sonic boom that could be heard for kilometers. The impact also caused tremors in surrounding areas.