A small asteroid lit up the skies over northern Siberia on Tuesday as it collided with Earth’s atmosphere.
The European Space Agency (ESA) alerted the public at 4:27 a.m. ET about the 27-inch asteroid, temporarily named C0WEPC5. It described the event as creating a visible fireball but assured that the impact was harmless.
The asteroid struck Earth’s atmosphere over Yakutia in northeastern Siberia at 11:15 a.m. ET, producing a brilliant fireball witnessed by locals. Social media videos captured the celestial event, showing the fireball streaking across the sky before dissipating. It’s unclear if any debris reached the ground.
This asteroid marks the fourth detected strike this year and the 11th in history, classified as an “imminent impactor” by astronomers at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Fly-by asteroids are common, with advancements in detection technology significantly increasing astronomers’ ability to track them.
NASA reports that since October 2023, 132 asteroids have passed closer to Earth than the moon. Another asteroid, 2020 XR, approximately 1,200 feet in diameter, will pass Earth early Wednesday at a safe distance of 1.37 million miles. While not a threat, NASA classifies any object within 4.6 million miles as “potentially hazardous.”
