Asteroid 2022 EB5 Impact

On 2022-03-11 at 21:23 UTC, asteroid 2022 EB5 impacted the Earth northeast of Iceland at around 70.47° N latitude, 10.40° W longitude, to the southwest of Jan Mayen island.

2022 EB5 is (or rather, was) an Apollo group asteroid (an Earth-crossing asteroid with a semi-major axis greater than Earth’s but a perihelion closer to the Sun than the Earth). The asteroid was discovered only hours before impact, making it the fifth time an asteroid has been discovered before hitting the Earth.

From the brightness of the object and assumptions (guesses) about its reflectvity, it was estimated to be between 1 and 2.3 metres in diameter. After the impact, infrasound detectors in Greenland detected the atmospheric pressure wave.

With the impact velocity of 15 km/sec, the yield was estimated as 2 to 3 kilotons of TNT, which would imply a diameter of 3 to 4 metres.

Another infrasound detector in Norway recorded the event, revising the energy estimate to around 2 kilotons of TNT.

For more information, including pre-impact images and videos, see the article “Small asteroid 2022 EB5 impacted Earth on March 11” on Signs of the Times.

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