The recently discovered asteroid COWECP5 entered Earth’s atmosphere at around 11:15 a.m. ET (17:15 C.E.T) on December 3 and created a fireball over the sky in Eastern Siberia. According to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) social media post, people in the Yakutia region witnessed the fireball. This post came after the agency first announced its detection a few hours ago. The asteroid’s measurement was around 27 inches (70 centimeters). The agency had, however, assured that its impact would be harmless.
The tiny asteroid was detected hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere
The tiny asteroid, designated as COWECP5 was detected 12 hours before it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. As predicted by the ESA, its impact was harmless and “produced a nice fireball” in the Yakutia region. The asteroid was reportedly detected by the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.
In the social media post confirming its safe disintegration upon entry, ESA said, “Thanks to observations from astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds.” This asteroid has become the fourth “imminent impactor” discovered in 2024. For those unaware, an “imminent impactor” means that the asteroid was detected in advance before its contact with the Earth. Furthermore, this event marks the eleventh recorded asteroid impact overall.
According to Space.com, the first imminent impactor this year was asteroid 2024 BX1 which safely disintegrated over Berlin in January. The second, asteroid 2024 RW1, transformed into a fireball in the Phillippines in September. Meanwhile, a third asteroid 2024 UQ was discovered in October. It was detected two hours before it burned up over the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii.
Many documented asteroid COWECP5’s entry and widely shared it on social media. Physicist Richard Moissl also shared many posts about it on his social media account. According to one of his posts, a 12th imminent impactor is yet to be confirmed.
