An asteroid lit up the sky in Russia’s remote eastern region of Yakutia on Wednesday morning, creating a fireball before burning up in the atmosphere, officials and scientists said.
The Emergencies Ministry in Yakutia said all government agencies were put on alert as the asteroid approached, but no damage was reported after it landed.
“Residents of Olekmansk and Lensk districts were able to observe comet-like tails at night,” it said.
Writing on X, the European Space Agency said the asteroid is believed to be 70 centimeters (28 inches) long and was spotted about 12 hours before it appeared in the sky. It entered the atmosphere at 1.15 am local time, it said.
“Thanks to observations by astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict the impact within +/- 10 seconds,” the agency said.
Astronomer Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen’s University in Belfast said the asteroid “was a small one before the fireball appeared, but it would still be quite spectacular, visible for hundreds of kilometres”, said New Scientist magazine.