Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered a small asteroid hours before it was burned into the earth's atmosphere and exploded in the skies of Africa.The asteroid "2018 LA" became the third object to detect its approach from the ground before colliding with it. "This is the second time we have predicted a celestial fall on our planet long before this happened," said Paul Chaudas of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in America.Last year, NASA introduced Scout, a system capable of finding relatively small asteroids (30 meters in diameter), just days before it approached Earth.The asteroid was detected by the telescope "Catalina Sky Survey" last Saturday night, when it was still behind the moon's orbit a great distance from Earth. After its orbital data were processed, they were studied by NASA's Scout astronauts and then verified by other astronomers who performed a second test.As astronomers had predicted, the asteroid was burned in the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere and exploded at the expected time, allowing thousands of Botswana and other African nations to photograph it.Every day an asteroid or even a few small asteroids approach Earth. These small celestial bodies do not pose a threat to our planet, but astronomers are watching them after the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite in February 2013.After the Chelyabinsk disaster, NASA, Ross Cosmos and other global space agencies are actively developing asteroid detection systems before they approach Earth and are considering creating a space defense system against them.
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