VIEW LARGER Spacewatch asteroid trackers use the 90 inch Bok telescope atop Kitt Peak to look for wayward space rocks. Tucson astronomers are getting credit for finding and tracking an asteroid that fell over Russia Tuesday.
The Catalina Sky Survey worked alongside the Spacewatch team at the University of Arizona to follow the object all the way to its fiery plunge into the Earth's atmosphere.
"We find lots of near-Earth objects every night, we re-observe them to get a better idea of where they're going. After a couple of observations, we saw clearly it was on an impact trajectory," said Survey director Carson Fuls.
The asteroid was photographed streaking across a remote part of eastern Russia Tuesday morning, confirming the Sky Survey's findings.
"It was nothing to be alarmed about," said Fuls. "But it's a good test of the planetary defense system, to be able to find and track and figure out where an object like this is going."
Spacewatch used UA's Bok telescope, which has pointed its 90 inch mirror toward the stars since 1969.
Thousands of citizen scientists are also involved in scanning the skies for undiscovered asteroids. Amateur astronomers can go online at Zooniverse-dot-org and find more information from the Catalina Sky Survey.
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