Asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere with spectacular fireball – and there’s a bigger one on the way
The asteroid whizzed above the skies in Russia’s Siberia region and dispite its tiny size of 27 inches managed to put on a dazzling display as it burned up in the atmosphere
The asteroid measure about 27 inches across, according to the European Space Agency.
An asteroid lit up the sky as it turned into a dazzling fireball upon hitting Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday with space boffins noting a larger one is on its way.
Residents in the remote Sakha region in Russia’s Siberian tundra spotted the fireball as it whizzed across the sky in the early hours of this morning. The European Space Agency (ESA) said the asteroid measures about 27 inches across and burned up in contact with Earth’s atmosphere at about 1.15am (4.15pm Tuesday, UK time).
Sakha region officials said they had been alerted about the asteroid but that no reports of damage had been made. “Residents of Olekminsk and Lensk districts were able to observe in the night a tail similar to a comet and a flash,” the Sakha Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
The asteroid put on a dazzling display as it burned up in the atmoshere.
The ESA said in a post shared on X/Twitter today: “Asteroid #COWEPC5 (temporary designation) entered Earth’s atmosphere at 16:15 (4:45pm) UTC/17:15 (5:15pm) CET, creating a fireball over Yakutia witnessed by people in the region. The object was discovered roughly 12 hours ago and is thought to have been around 70 cm across. Thanks to observations from astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds.”
Clips of the fireball were widely shared on social media platforms such as X/Twitter. The Mirror found several of the videos shared online had been viewed by tens of thousands of people altogether.
The asteroid burned up in the atmosphere in the early hours of the morning in Russia.
Residents filmed the asteroid as it raced across the sky.
Several videos, taken from different parts of the Siberian republic showed the moment the asteroid shot across the sky, turning the horizon brilliant shades of blue. Moments later the same space rock burned up a glowing red before disappearing altogether.
The small asteroid was first detected by a team at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and was the fourth space rock to enter Earth’s atmosphere this year. Physicist Richard Moissl head of the Planetary Defence Office of the ESA previously said in a X/Twitter post: “Incoming. The 12th-ever imminent impactor discovered before atmospheric entry is on its way to cause a harmless meteor in about 7 hours from now over Siberia. With an estimated size of 70cm diameter. It will cause a nice bright fireball.”
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a relatively large asteroid, given the name 2020XR, will pass by Earth today. The asteroid is several times larger that the tiny fireball that burned up over Russia and is believed to measure about 1,200 feet in diameter.
It will safely pass by the Earth at a distance of about 1.37 million miles. A NASA spokesperson previously said of the asteroid: “The likelihood of an impact from 2020 XR is virtually zero. But it still qualifies as a ‘potentially hazardous asteroid’ due to its proximity.”
