(Paris) A small meteorite flew over northern France in the night from Sunday to Monday and dissolved over the west of the country, briefly illuminating the sky without causing any damage, said the European Space Agency (ESA).
Posted at 10:15am
The celestial object, an asteroid about one meter in diameter, was observed for the first time by an amateur astronomer in Hungary on Sunday evening. Informed, ESA monitored and calculated its trajectory and issued the warning to Ian Carnelli, head of the planetary defense program at the space agency, at around 10:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. Eastern time).
After passing over the Paris and Normandy region, the meteor, designated #Sar2667, made its way to Earth around 3 a.m. (9 p.m. Eastern time) Monday as scheduled and broke up near the coasts as it entered the atmosphere of the English Channel. The blast was particularly visible over Normandy and southern England and did no damage.
This phenomenon occurs “roughly every two or three months, most commonly over the oceans,” said Ian Carnelli.
“It is important to be able to inform the population in order to avoid panic. This can be a concern if it hits inhabited areas, but given the size of the object, there is no need to worry.”
The detection time depends on the size of the asteroid: the larger it is, the sooner it can be detected. “To be able to predict an impact with such a small object like this night several hours in advance is extraordinary,” commented the ESA officer.
In 2013, a fireball about fifty feet in diameter exploded over Chelyabinsk in Siberia (eastern Russia), causing extensive damage and injuring several hundred people.
“Today, our systems would be able to prevent such an impact about a month in advance,” allowing civil protection services to protect the population, according to Ian Carnelli.
#Sar2667 comes from the inner solar system’s asteroid belt, which contains hundreds of millions of small asteroids. When they enter Earth’s atmosphere, asteroids are called bolides, then their fragments on the ground take the name of meteorites.