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Asteroid hit Canada, may have spewed meteorites

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Asteroid hit Canada: Map of the southern shore of Lake Ontario.
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Asteroid hit Canada and may have spewed meteorites

Astronomers detected an asteroid just hours before it hit Earth on Saturday morning (November 19, 2022), near Lake Erie in Canada. That is it’s not the first time This year, astronomers have discovered a rock from space just hours before it hits Earth. But this time, it entered Earth’s atmosphere over a populated area, crossing the skies of Toronto, Canada. So we have video and witnesses who saw, heard and felt the impact. And astronomers said that locals could find meteorites from the impact.

Western University in Canada said the meteorites may have struck the ground near the southern shore of Lake Ontario, mainly north of St. Catalinas. peter brown from Western University said:

This fireball is particularly significant since the main meteoroid was observed telescopically before it hit the atmosphere. This makes it a rare opportunity to link an asteroid’s telescopic data with its atmospheric breakup behavior to gain insight into its internal structure.

The researchers asked locals between Port Weller and Virgil, Ontario, to keep an eye out for fragments of the space rock. brown said:

We know from camera records and weather radar that tracked the falling debris from the fireball that the meteorites almost certainly struck the ground near or to the east of Grimsby. What we need now to complete this story is to recover some of these rocks and find out what kind of material made up asteroid 2022 WJ1. This is very similar to a sample return space mission, but in this case the sample fell on us.

Read more about how to find meteorites. And if you find any, please contact the Royal Ontario Museum at naturalhistory@rom.on.ca.

Scientists mapped this area (red) where meteorites from the November 19, 2022 fireball may have struck the ground. Image via western university.

First report of impending impact

Ye Quanzhian astronomer at the University of Maryland who studies asteroids, comets, and meteors, reported on Twitter at 1:13 am EST on November 19:

It looks like a space rock will hit the Lake Erie area in about 2 hours (around 3:30am EST)

shared the Link for NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies Risk Assessment page. The object, C8FF042, is now removed from the page because it hit Earth and is therefore no longer a threat.

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accurate prediction

At 2:29 a.m.EST, Ricardo Moissl tweeted that the asteroid should impact around 8:26 UTC, which translates to 3:26 am EST. That turned out to be incredibly accurate, as cameras around Toronto caught the fireball at 3:25 and 3:26 am. The CN Tower camera in Toronto was one of the cameras that saw the near-horizontal entry of the asteroid.

asteroid witnesses

Fortunately, the space rock was less than a meter (about 3 feet) in size. The impact should have been around Brantford, Ontario. That’s north of Lake Erie; west of Buffalo, New York; east of Detroit and southwest of Toronto. With such a populated area, many people had a chance to see the fireball enter the atmosphere. People on Twitter reported seeing the bright flash of light, along with the sound of atmospheric entry and even shaking, likely from the sonic boom. Twitter user @TimsDoubleD said:

I heard it and it almost felt like my house was moving. I thought a generator blew up nearby.

Twitter user @SchefflerKen said:

It would have been interesting to see this, but at least I got to hear it. For some reason I had woken up and a few seconds later the house cracked the way it does when hit by a gust of wind and then there was a thud for two or three seconds.

some observers reported the ball of fire in magnitude -10 to -20.

Those few hours in advance were enough for some to capture C8FF042 with telescopes.

You saw it? You can report the fireball to the American Meteor Society here.

Asteroid now called 2022 WJ1

David Rankin discovered the asteroid C8FF042, which the center of minor planets has since named WJ1. Information about the newly discovered asteroid circulated on the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML). It’s said:

Bill Gray has the point of impact on November 19, 2022 08:26:54.47 UTC, latitude +43.12309, longitude W80.26416, which is directly over Brantford, Ontario, Canada.

Sam Deen in MPML said:

The object will have a very grazing impact of only about 10-12 degrees, and should be traveling WSW to ENE between Detroit and Buffalo. We should probably expect a pretty spectacular light show, considering the low angle and high population of the area.

More Twitter Views

Bottom line: On November 19, 2022, a small asteroid struck Canada just hours after its discovery. The researchers are asking locals to keep an eye out for meteors.

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About the Author:

Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science writer specializing in astronomy for more than two decades. She began her career at Astronomy magazine and has made regular contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among other outlets. Her illustrated children’s book of hers, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. She has also written a young adult dystopian novel titled A Different Sky. When she’s not reading or writing about astronomy and stargazing, she likes to travel to national parks, do crossword puzzles, run, play tennis, and paddleboard. Kelly lives with her family in Wisconsin.

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