A group of Northern Ireland scientists could help predict a potentially disastrous asteroid strike on Earth, a researcher claimed today.
The last moments of a piece of space debris have been studied by a team of astronomers from Queen’s University, Belfast.
Scientists captured the 80-ton rock’s movements as it hurtled towards our planet in October but exploded in the atmosphere.
Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, from Queen’s, said: “The technology and the science behind this is focused on, obviously, work which would cause us serious problems.
“It so happens that we have been able to test that technology and procedure.”
This is the first time an asteroid of any size has been studied before entering our atmosphere. Parts of the 4m wide rock landed in the Nubian desert in Sudan.
An asteroid collision was one of the theories put forward for the extinction of the dinosaurs.
However a handful of episodes happen every year where they burn up upon entering the atmosphere.
Prof Fitzsimmons said: “It was important to try and figure out what type of asteroid it was before impact in order to give us a better idea of its size and where it came from.
“This event shows that astronomers can successfully predict the impact of asteroids even with a short warning time, and obtain the astronomical observations necessary to estimate what will happen when the asteroid reaches us.”
PA