What they didn’t know then—but scientists had been tracking—was that this was asteroid 2023 CX1, a small near-Earth object that had been spotted just hours before impact. One of the Few Asteroids Ever Tracked Before ImpactAsteroid 2023 CX1 is now part of a very short list: fewer than ten known asteroids have ever been detected before they entered Earth’s atmosphere. “It’s a scientific milestone,” said Dr. Patrick Michel, planetary scientist at CNRS and a member of ESA’s planetary defence team. For once, we had a head start.”Fragments Scattered, but Only Now RecoveredShortly after the impact, scientists estimated that any surviving debris would have landed somewhere between Fontaine-le-Dun and Dieppe, across farmland and lightly wooded terrain. Building Momentum for Planetary DefenseThe discovery comes at a time when space agencies are ramping up efforts to improve planetary defense systems.