Residents in far northern Russia were treated to a natural light show Tuesday night as a small asteroid rushed toward Earth before burning out above the region, according to officials.
The European Space Agency said earlier Tuesday that the flying space rock, which was less than 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) broad, had “been spotted on a collision course with” Earth and that the impact would be “harmless.”
Residents of the Russian republic of Yakutia reported seeing a “nice fireball in the sky over northern Siberia” at 5:15 p.m. CET (11:15 a.m. ET), according to ESA.
NASA described the incident as a “harmless fireball” and gave credit to the Bok telescope at the University of Arizona for being the first to detect its approach.
The asteroid was named C0WEPC5, and no early reports of damage or injuries were received.
According to the government, our alarm system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds thanks to observations from astronomers worldwide.
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