Residents of southern England lived an exciting experience, when they watched with their own eyes a small asteroid entering the Earth’s atmosphere, to burn in front of them and light up the sky in a unique scene.
In the wee hours of Monday morning at 3 am GMT, a one-meter long asteroid dubbed Sar2667 was quickly spotted.
And the European Space Agency considered that predicting in advance the entry of the asteroid into the Earth’s atmosphere, “a sign of the rapid progress in the global capabilities to detect asteroids .”
Previously, the agency predicted a safe collision of “the object” with Earth’s atmosphere near Rouen, France.
The International Meteor Organization, a non-profit organization established in Belgium, reported that the object descended four kilometers from France’s coastline and produced an enormous fireball. Astonishingly, many citizens of southern England managed to snap pictures with their phone cameras before sharing it on social media – all within seconds!
A Twitter user said: “The asteroid lit up the sky with a pink flash. It was amazing.”
Just last November, an asteroid surprised onlookers when it streaked across the night sky over Ontario, Canada–marking the most recent celestial visitor to Earth.
In January, a minibus-sized asteroid was barreling towards Earth before experts determined it likely disintegrated in the atmosphere just prior to impact.