A 22-Million-Year Journey From the Asteroid Belt to Botswana
Astronomers reconstructed a space rock’s path before it exploded over southern Africa in 2018 and sprinkled the Kalahari with meteorites.
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A full rotation of the asteroid Vesta, as seen from the Dawn spacecraft in 2011.CreditCredit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA; Little Mountain 5
By Robin George Andrews
Published April 29, 2021Updated May 5, 2021
On the morning of June 2, 2018, an asteroid was seen careening toward us at 38,000 miles per hour. It was going to impact Earth, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Astronomers were beside themselves with excitement.
Five feet long and weighing about the same as an adult African elephant, this space rock posed no threat. But the early detection of this asteroid, only the second to be spotted in space before hitting land, was a good test of our ability to spot larger, more dangerous asteroids. Moreover, it afforded scientists the chance to study the asteroid before its obliteration, quickly narrow down the impact site and obtain some of the most pristine, least weathered meteorite samples around.