A small asteroid lit up the skies over northern Siberia on Wednesday (December 4) after burning up in Earth’s atmosphere in a “spectacular” (yet harmless) fireball.
Astronomers discovered the 28-inch (70 centimeter) diameter space rock early Wednesday morning local time, hours before it entered the atmosphere.
“Thanks to observations by astronomers around the world, our warning system was able to predict this impact within ±10 seconds,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a paper. Post it to X, Previously on Twitter.
The asteroid, tentatively named C0WEPC5, entered Earth’s atmosphere at 1:15 a.m. local time on December 4 over Russia’s remote Sakha Republic (also known as Yakutia) in northeastern Siberia. The Saha Ministry of Emergencies said local authorities were on alert, but no damage was reported during the event.
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Footage of the fireball was shared on Telegram by the Ministry of Interior of the Sakha Republic. The video came from colleagues at the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for the Orekminsky district and the city’s residents.
NASA’s Asteroid Earth Impact Final Warning System ATLAS discovered the space rock 12 hours before it entered the atmosphere, making it the fourth so-called “imminent impactor” detected so far this year and the 11th overall, according to ESA. .
of first asteroid Detected and tracked this way was a 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) space rock called 2008 TC3, which broke apart over Sudan in October 2008. However, the system did not detect another rock until January 2014. When California’s Mount Lemmon Observatory noticed a meteorite 2014AA It was hours before it crossed our sky. But since then, our ability to spot these impactors has improved significantly, and the space agency now detects several imminent impactors each year.
Although asteroids like C0WEPC5 pose no threat to Earth, by installing these detection systems, astronomers can identify asteroids and deflect larger and more dangerous objects It is on a collision course with Earth.
As a result, both NASA and ESA have dedicated programs to discover and track these near-Earth objects. Fortunately, there are no known asteroids that pose a threat to Earth for at least the next 100 years.
