The object has bypassed impact monitoring systems.

Last month, Earth’s atmosphere was bombarded by a small, boulder-sized asteroid just hours after it was first detected, evading early impact monitoring systems. The object, designated 2024 UQ, was discovered just two hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere, and fortunately there was no real threat as it measured only 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter.

The Last Earth Asteroid Impact Alert System, a four-telescope survey based in Hawaii to monitor near-Earth objects, discovered the asteroid on October 22. Within days of its detection, 2024 UQ disintegrated in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean off California, creating an “imminent impactor,” or an impact where Earth-bound objects are detected hours before they hit the planet.

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“The ATLAS survey obtained images that included detections of a small object on a high-probability collision course. However, due to the location of the object near the edge of two adjacent fields, the candidate was recognized as a moving object only a few hours later. ,” ESA wrote in the newsletter.“By the time astrometry reached impact monitoring systems, the impact had already happened.”

This close call serves to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the modern track system and provides a case for continued investment in early detection technology. Although harmless in this circumstance, the situation serves to highlight Earth’s ever-improving efforts in space surveillance—the possibility that potentially dangerous space rocks could slip by undetected.