For the second time ever, an astronomer saw an asteroid headed for Earth before it got here.

And for the second time, the discoverer was Tucson astronomer Rich Kowalski, using the 60-inch telescope on Mount Lemmon. ﻿

The asteroid named 2014 AA was about the size of a car, and it likely burned up in the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean off the West Coast of Africa on New Year’s Day. ﻿

In comparison, the one that lit up Tucson skies last month was about the size of a basketball.

Kowalski works at the Catalina Sky Survey, a division of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. ﻿

“This is a group that has found more than half the near-Earth asteroids known to mankind at the moment,” said Professor Timothy Swindle, who heads the laboratory. ﻿

The Catalina Sky Survey has dedicated telescope time, two good telescopes and software that helps detect objects in real time, he said.

“These two they’ve found are little ones, but their real job is to find ones that may be dangerous,” Swindle said. “The trick is to find them before they find us, which is what they’re trying to do.”