The asteroid flared up in Earth's atmosphere after streaking past northern Siberia late Tuesday night, lighting up the sky in a blinding flash of light, dramatic video showed.
This relatively small asteroid was only 27 inches wide (about the diameter of a bicycle tire) and posed no danger to Earth, but it was stillnice fireball in the sky” Around 4:15 a.m. local time, over the Siberian tundra, European Space Agency I wrote to X.
The asteroid, temporarily given the unlikely name “C0WEPC5,” was part of a so-called “imminent impactor” discovered at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, hours before its dramatic appearance. It was a rare case. space dot com Reported.
C0WEPC5 is the 11th impending impactor ever discovered and the fourth to set a record this year alone.
Space agencies around the world continuously monitor the skies for asteroids and other celestial objects that could collide with Earth.
On June 30, 1908, a much larger asteroid, over 130 feet in diameter, exploded over Siberia, and has since been named the Tunguska event.
Scientists did not investigate the impact site until 20 years later, when they discovered that the asteroid had carved a vast area of destruction approximately 830 square miles in size. NASA.
In 2016, the United Nations designated June 30 as International Asteroid Day, commemorating this celestial event with its own date to raise awareness of asteroids and space agencies' efforts to find them.
