this is a sky watch media special report for July 26 2019 just recently an
asteroid smashed into the Earth's atmosphere causing an immense blast over
Canada the fireball explosion occurred roughly 18 miles above the surface with
the space rock traveling at an incredible 45,000 miles per hour the
small asteroid was able to penetrate deep within the atmosphere relatively
close to the ground scattering fragments across the countryside of
Ontario Canada here's what is known about the impact at roughly 244 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time on July 24th multiple cameras belonging to the
southern Ontario meteor Network indicated that the asteroid became
visible at an altitude of 58 miles above the northern shore of Lake Ontario and
moving to the northeast at 55,000 miles per hour the object traversed some 80
miles through the upper atmosphere and then slowed to 17,000 miles per hour
before exploding 18 miles above the little Anstrother Lake which is located near
the Canadian town of Apsley the orbit and peak brightness which was close to
that of the full moon indicate the fireball was caused by a fragment of an
asteroid classified as a remnant from the formation of the solar system the
meteor camera Network captured the fiery rocks trek through the atmosphere on
video which will help researchers figure out where in the solar system it
originated
at about the same time that a small asteroid fragmented over Canada a
gigantic one passed just over 43,000 miles from our planet on July 25th it
was discovered by the Brazilian Sonear survey just days ago and its presence was
announced mere hours before it zoomed past our planet
the near-earth asteroid designated 2019 OK poses a genuine risk to the earth
since it measures as much as 426 feet in diameter at its closest approach during
dark skies the asteroid would have been visible with binoculars as point of
light drifting slowly across the sky but just three days before its closest
approach it was 1,000 times fainter and not easily detectable asteroid 2019
which has been orbiting fairly close to the Sun was only visible around Twilight
before it was independently detected by sensitive telescopes that scan large
areas of the sky the asteroid has a very elliptical orbit taking it from the
asteroid belt beyond Mars to within the orbits of both
Earth and Venus a 2.7 year orbit that will bring it close to Earth once again
in our near future as with all dangerous near-earth objects if their trajectory
should bring them in contact with the earth there would be very little warning
and little that could be done in way of preparation right now spacecraft are
approaching near-earth asteroids in an attempt to study their orbital patterns
in the hope of preventing an asteroid catastrophe with our planet but these
are only missions of discovery rather than attempts at asteroid
destruction all things considered the ultimate solution in preventing an
impact maybe to give dangerous asteroids a
gentle nudge that could gradually change an asteroids velocity over a period of
years that would hopefully make a difference in its trajectory a small
nudge in the right direction could be just enough to avoid annihilation on our
small planet thanks for watching