LPL's Vivian Carvajal Detect Earth Impactor
On the morning of Dec. 3rd, LPL’s Vivian Carvajal, working on a joint asteroid survey project between Spacewatch and the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) and using the 90" Bok telescope on Kitt Peak, discovered an imminent Earth impacting asteroid, which fell over Russia. This was the 11th such object to be found ahead of impact (6 out of 11 being found by CSS), the first impactor discovered by Vivian, by the joint project, and by a telescope at Kitt Peak. While all of these small objects burned up harmlessly in the atmosphere, these are fantastic tests of the entire asteroid early warning system of which CSS and Spacewatch are key players. Congratulations to Vivian and the entire CSS and Spacewatch teams!