Astronomers Trace Back 22-Million-Year Trip of Meteorite Before It Burst Just Above Earth sputniknews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sputniknews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
23 APRIL 2021
The asteroid2018 LA crashed into Earth in the Kalahari Desert on 2 June 2018 – and now scientists have been able to trace it back 22 million years to the place where it originated from.
This is the first time a meteorite s entire voyage to Earth has been charted in this way, and it s only the second time that we ve ever had the opportunity to observe an asteroid in space before it enters the atmosphere and becomes a meteor.
Based on those early observations, analysis of the recovered meteorite fragments, and various other factors, a new study pinpoints the origin of 2018 LA as Vesta – the Solar System s second largest asteroid and the only one that can sometimes be seen from Earth with the naked eye.