An asteroid streaked previous northern Siberia in the midst of the evening Tuesday earlier than burning up in Earth’s ambiance, lighting up the skies with a blinding flash, dramatic video reveals.
The comparatively diminutive asteroid measured simply 27 inches huge — in regards to the diameter of a bicycle tire — and posed no hazard to Earth, however was nonetheless sufficient to supply a “good fireball within the sky” over the Siberian tundra round 4:15 a.m. native time, the European Area Company wrote on X.
The asteroid, quickly given the rolls-off-the-tongue identify C0WEPC5, was a uncommon occasion of what’s generally known as an “imminent impactor,” found on the Kitt Peak Nationwide Observatory close to Tucson, Ariz. simply hours earlier than its dramatic look, Area.com reported.
C0WEPC5 is simply the eleventh imminent impactor ever found and the record-setting fourth this yr alone.
Area businesses world wide repeatedly monitor the skies for asteroids and different celestial objects on a possible collision course with Earth.
On June 30, 1908, a a lot bigger asteroid with a diameter of over 130 toes exploded over Siberia in what has since been named the Tunguska Occasion.
The impression website was not examined by scientists till 20 years later, once they found the asteroid carved a large space of destruction of round 830 sq. miles, in line with NASA.
In 2016, the United Nations enshrined the celestial taking place with its personal date, designating June 30 as Worldwide Asteroid Day to spice up consciousness of asteroids and area businesses’ efforts to find them.
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