Scientists discovered an asteroid just hours before it exploded over Germany

A few days ago, an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded over Berlin, Germany, shocking many onlookers who were lucky enough to see the fiery entry.

Small asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere and explode every day, but due to Earth's surface mostly being covered by water, humans don't typically get to witness these awesome cosmic events. Researchers dedicated to tracking these space rocks are quite good at predicting when they will enter Earth's atmosphere, but every now and again, one small asteroid sneaks past detection or is only detected just hours before impact.

The asteroid that exploded over Berlin is officially called 2024 BXI and was first discovered by Krisztián Sárneczky, an astronomer at the Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory in Hungary. 2024 BXI was only discovered hours before it entered Earth's atmosphere, but before it arrived, NASA issued a warning for residents in West Berlin. "Heads Up: A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless fireball west of Berlin near Nennhausen shortly at 1:32 am CET. Overseers will see it if it's clear!" wrote NASA Asteroid Watch