An asteroid measuring about 70 cm (roughly 27.5 inches) struck Yakutsk, Russia on Tuesday.
The fireball was discovered around 12 hours before it made impact, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). It entered Earth’s atmosphere around 16:15 UTC (11:15 a.m. ET), the ESA said.
“Thanks to observations from astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds,” the ESA said on X.
☄️ Asteroid #C0WEPC5 (temporary designation) entered Earth’s atmosphere at 16:15 UTC/17:15 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… https://t.co/ohya9xsEak
— European Space Agency (@esa) December 3, 2024
“The fireball lit up the western sky, and fragments may now lie deep in the forest,” OribtalToday.com said in a post on X accompanied by videos of the asteroid.
Videos circulating on social media appear to show the asteroid descending from the sky as bursts of light can be seen. One video shows the asteroid falling and flashing with light before it appears to fade out. (RELATED: Videos Show Major Fireball Light Up The Skies Over Western Europe).
Alan Fitzsimmons. an astronomer and professor at Queen’s University Belfast, told New Scientist an asteroid of this size does not present a risk to anyone on the ground.
“It’s a small one, but it will still be quite spectacular,” Fitzsimmons told the outlet. “It will be dark over the impact site and for several hundreds of kilometres around there’ll be a very impressive, very bright fireball in the sky.”
NASA and the ESA have established programs dedicated to tracking and spotting asteroids, New Scientist reported. The programs are made up of amateur astronomers who analyze readings showing the position of the known objects and dedicated observatories so that asteroids’ orbits can be better predicted.
In April, a fireball flew over New Jersey, just days after the solar eclipse and an earthquake that struck the state.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
