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In a Groundbreaking Discovery NASA Scientists Can Now Track Asteroid and Meteor Strikes on Earth Better

Distributed acoustic sensing has allowed NASA scientists to know the trajectory and timing followed by the sample return capsule.

BY SOMDATTA MAITY

PUBLISHED MAR 15, 2025

Experts perform preliminary checks on the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission (Cover Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by NASA/Keegan Barber)

Space enthusiasts and experts are always on the lookout to understand more about the effects produced by meteoroids and asteroids. The details help them better prepare for future incidents involving these extraterrestrial bodies. Recently, researchers found another way of monitoring these incoming objects, stated Phys.org. Findings regarding this new method have been published in Seismological Research Letters.

Hayabusa return capsule and trail, filmed by the Ames Research Center crew aboard the NASA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by NASA/Ames Research Center)

The method discussed in the study is distributed acoustic sensing. In this method, experts utilized distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) interrogators and surface-draped fiber-optic cables to record geophysical signals produced by an incoming object from space. In this examination, these appliances focussed on the sample return capsule (SRC) of NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission.

The mission had followed the near-earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu for around four years. In the last two, the mission collected multiple rock and regolith samples from the asteroid. The space return capsule was carrying these samples. It entered the Earth's atmosphere by September 24, 2023, and was later taken by NASA scientists. The SRC was traveling at hypersonic speeds, which caused it to produce a sonic boom that eventually created an impact on the ground. Researchers already knew the trajectory and timing that would be followed by this SRC, which allowed the team to monitor it using distributed acoustic sensing.

The examination of such SRCs enables experts to make better and safer methods for future sample-return missions. The analysis also gives them valuable insights into what happens to meteoroids and asteroids as they enter into the atmosphere and how those events can alter their ultimate impact. Before this study, the arrival of SRCs was typically monitored with infrasound and seismic sensors. However, this particular SRC came with certain previously known variables, which allowed experts to venture into distributed acoustic sensing and gain more in-depth knowledge.

The team installed two DAS interrogators and more than 12 km (7.45 mi) of surface-draped fiber-optic cables across two sites near the town of Eureka. The two sites were the locations where the SRC was supposedly going to arrive from space. "DAS systems interrogating an optical fiber are still relatively rare," Dr. Carly M. Donahue from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) added, stated Phys.org. "Knowing ahead of time the precise trajectory gave us the scarce opportunity to situate multiple DAS interrogators near the point of highest heating and capture the sonic boom as it impacted the ground."

The setting up of the whole system was not an easy pursuit by any means. "Once the team got the hang of rolling out the four spools of optical fiber that each weighed over 100 kgs, installing and retrieving the fiber took less time than setting up the six co-located seismic and infrasound stations. Approximately five km of the optical fiber was located at the local Eureka airport, along with many other teams deploying sensors such as infrasound, seismic, and GPS. The other seven km of fiber was located along a remote dirt road in Newark Valley," Dr. Donahue explained.

The team managed to garner the profile of the sonic boom that was created after the SRC struck the ground. Traditional sensors can only measure sonic boom from one point, while these appliances revealed the full-scale changes experienced by this SRC's wavefront after it interacted with Nevada's landscape. The DAS interrogators recorded the impulsive arrival of the SRC with an extended coda.

Researchers are ecstatic with the success of their objective and believe that their results will help experts in the future to predict potential meteor and asteroid strikes. "By having an extremely dense array of sensors, DAS has the possibility of better characterizing the trajectory and size of a meteor. The topology (e.g., hills) of the ground is known to have influence on wavefront recorded at the surface of the earth. By having a dense line of sensors that span over the changes in the earth's elevation, these effects could be better accounted for to produce a more accurate characterization of a meteor's trajectory," Dr. Donahue said.