00:00Nothing special at first, tweeted astronomer Christian Sarnetsky about an asteroid he spotted
00:10hours before it lit up the skies over the English Channel as a blazing fireball.
00:15This marked only the seventh time in human history that an asteroid was detected prior
00:20to entering Earth's atmosphere, and of those it was the third such detection in 12 months.
00:26Not only that, but measuring just over three feet wide, 2023 CX-1 is also one of the smallest
00:33impactors ever detected. That's huge, scientifically speaking. It means humans are getting a lot better
00:40at spotting potential meteorites before they hit. To date, astronomers have discovered and catalogued
00:46over 30,000 near-Earth asteroids, space rocks which pose some risk to entering Earth's space as they
00:53orbit around the sun. Most of these are pretty tiny, and like 2023 CX-1, would likely burn up upon
01:00entering Earth's atmosphere. Though such events pose little danger to humans, more advance warning
01:07can only give us a better opportunity to catch the fireworks.
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