(Paris) A small meteorite flew over northern France overnight from Sunday to Monday and disintegrated over the west of the country, briefly illuminating the sky, without doing any damage, the agency said. European space (ESA).
The celestial object, an asteroid about one meter in diameter, was observed for the first time on Sunday evening by an amateur astronomer in Hungary. Informed, the ESA monitored and calculated its trajectory, and gave the alert around 10:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. Eastern time), Ian Carnelli, head of the planetary defense program at the space agency.
After flying over the Paris region and Normandy, the meteor dubbed #Sar2667 impacted the Earth as planned around 3 a.m. (9 p.m. Eastern time) on Monday, and disintegrated on entering the atmosphere near the coasts of the Channel. The explosion was particularly visible over Normandy and from the south of England, and caused no damage.
This phenomenon occurs “about every two or three months, most often over the oceans,” said Ian Carnelli.
“It is important to be able to inform the population to avoid panic. This can cause concern when it hits inhabited areas, but there is nothing to worry about” given the size of the object.
The detection time depends on the size of the asteroid: the bigger it is, the earlier it can be spotted. “To have been able to foresee an impact several hours before with an object as small as that of this night, it is quite extraordinary”, commented the person in charge of the ESA.
In 2013, a fireball about fifteen meters in diameter exploded above 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”, which would allow the civil protection services to shelter populations, according to Ian Carnelli.
#Sar2667 originates from the inner solar system’s asteroid belt, which contains hundreds of millions of small asteroids. When they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, asteroids are called bolides, then their fragments on the ground take the name of meteorites.