Video Captures Asteroid Colliding With Earth And Flashing Over Russia

A video captured by a security camera showed the incredible moment when a bright blue sphere in the sky lit up a town in Russia. Based on the clip, it seems an asteroid hit Earth and turned into a huge meteor fireball in the sky.

The video of the fireball event was posted through the Russian social media site VK.com. According to details of the footage, the incident occurred on Feb. 20 at around 4:30 in the morning.

The large fireball appeared over the Segezhesky district of the Russian Republic of Karelia. As seen in the video, a bright blue spherical object suddenly appears in the dark sky and illuminates the town below. According to some eyewitnesses, the strange object streaked across the sky for about six seconds before completely disappearing, RT reported.

Other residents in the area reported hearing a loud bang right before the fireball disappeared. This suggests that the object that caused the fireball may have hit the ground. It is also possible that the loud noise was caused by the object’s mid-air explosion.

Based on the video, the object that caused the fireball event was most likely an asteroid that became a meteor after entering Earth’s atmosphere. Due to the intense heat and friction from the atmosphere, the object burnt up and turned into a bright fireball. Sometimes, depending on the composition and size of the space rock, fireball events could end up in airbursts.

“Due to the velocity at which they strike the Earth’s atmosphere, fragments larger than 1 millimeter have the capability to produce a bright flash as they streak through the heavens above,” the International Meteor Organization explained in a statement. “These bright meteors are what we call fireballs and they often strike fear and awe for those who witness them.”

The arrival of the meteor last week marks the seventh anniversary of the meteor explosion that occurred in Russia. On Feb. 15, 2013, a meteor that was about 66 feet wide turned into a fireball and exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk.

Due to its size and speed, the meteor’s explosion release energy that’s equivalent to about 26 to 33 atomic bombs. Although the explosion happened from an altitude of 97,000 feet, it was still powerful enough to damage over 7,000 buildings and injure about 1,500 people on the ground.