Researchers at Western University that documented a 2022 fireball over southwestern Ontario have made history as having studied the smallest asteroid documented to date.
Scientists determined the composition and size of Asteroid 2022 WJ1 as it streaked across the night sky, before it fractured while entering earth’s atmosphere and dropped meteorites in the Niagara region.
Only the sixth asteroid ever discovered prior to impact, the space rock responsible for all the fuss was a mere 40-60 cm in diameter.
“Our new approach, discovering an asteroid through space observation and then subsequently observing it with cameras from the ground, allowed us to confirm that our estimates match well to estimates derived using a completely different approach,” said Denis Vida, Western physics and astronomy adjunct professor.
A timelapse image of the fireball event from start to finish. (Source: Western Meteor Group)
The combination of camera networks, as well as telescopes allowed for …