'Spectacular' Asteroid Blazes Over Siberia Just Hours After It Was Detected

Reference: Found here

Headlines:

Here are 10 recent news headlines from around the world, similar in style to the original: • **Mysterious Monsoon Waves Observed Over Indian Ocean**

• **Record-Breaking Wildfires Ravage Australian Coast**

• **Comet Z. Harpaz Set to Pass Close to Earth, Causing Commuter Chaos**

• **Severe Storms Batter Southeast Asia, Displacing Thousands**

• **New Species of Ancient Human Discovered in Peru's Amazon Rainforest**

• ** asteroids approaching Earth may not pose threat: NASA in rare correction**

• **NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake Ecosystem**

• **Norway's Midges Spread Tens of Thousands of Kilometers in Summer Fever**

• **Growing Tropical Cyclone Brings Widespread Damage to Southeast Asia**

• **Tensor satellites gather spectacular images of Ill-Enclosed Glacier Fields** These headlines reflect the diversity and dynamism of global news... covering a range of weather events, "scientific breakthroughs.".. and natural wonders.

#news

A small asteroid lit up the skies over northern Siberia Wednesday (Dec. 4) after burning up in Earth's atmosphere in a "spectacular" (yet harmless) fireball.

Astronomers spotted the space rock , measuring 28 inches (70 centimeters) in diameter, in the early hours on Wednesday local time, just hours before the space rock entered the atmosphere .

"Thanks to observations from astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds," the European Space Agency (ESA) wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

C0WEPC5, as the asteroid has been temporarily named, entered Earth's atmosphere at 1:15 a.m. local time on Dec. 4 over Russia's remote Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, in northeastern Siberia. Local officials were placed on alert, the Sakha emergencies ministry noted, but no damage was reported during the event.

Related: Tiny asteroid detected hours before hitting Earth to become 4th 'imminent impactor' of 2024

Footage of the fireball was shared by the Sakha Republic Ministry Of Internal Affairs on Telegram. The footage was from colleagues at the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Olekminsky District and city residents.

The first asteroid to be detected and tracked in this way was a 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) space rock called 2008 TC3, which broke up above Sudan in October 2008. But the system didn't detect another one until January 2014, when California's Mount Lemmon observatory noticed meteoroid 2014 AA several hours before it streaked through our skies. However, since then, our ability to find these impactors has greatly improved and space agencies are now detecting several imminent impactors every year.

While asteroids like C0WEPC5 pose no threat to the planet, having these detection systems in place gives astronomers the opportunity to identify and deflect larger and more dangerous objects on a collision course with Earth.