Asteroid impacts Earth between WA and Bali as NASA celebrates test of ‘our planetary defense capabilities’

Dinosaurs didn’t see the asteroid coming that ended their 180-million year reign on the Earth, but humans had more luck spotting an asteroid ahead of its impact over the Indian Ocean between WA and Bali on Monday morning.

T-Rex and co. were done in by a monster asteroid measuring up to 15 kilometres wide, producing an extinction-level event when it impacted the Earth near Mexico at a site now known as the Chicxulub crater.

In comparison, the space object designated CERNQ52 was roughly the size of a washing machine and likely disintegrated when it hit the atmosphere just after midnight on Monday, and was subsequently incinerated before reaching the surface.

According to NASA, the object was first reported to the Minor Planet Center by the Catalina Sky Survey, with earlier detections by Pan-STARRS.

The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies calculated its trajectory and impact location, all facilities that receive funding by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

It was just the 13th time a small impactor had been spotted prior to hitting the Earth.

NASA set up the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2016 to improve the response to an asteroid impact, after decades spent tracking the trajectory of space objects.

As for what the plan is if an impact is imminent, NASA successfully conducted the Double Asteroid Redirection Test in 2022, which involved changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.

For those who came in late, “kinetic impact” meant smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid (an incredible scientific feat on its own) at about 22,000kph.

Responding to the latest asteroid detection on social media, NASA said, “While not a hazard, scenarios like this provide an invaluable test of our planetary defense capabilities to monitor for larger objects and predict impact threats”.