A small asteroid, C0WEPC5, was detected heading towards Earth, creating a visible fireball over northern Siberia.
Advances in technology and dedicated programmes by NASA and ESA have increased our ability to track asteroid fly-bys.
Past asteroid events demonstrate human capacity to survive even larger, more destructive impacts.
Unsurprisingly, asteroids entering Earth’s atmosphere have a way of sparing a good deal of concern — much like the discovery of mysterious underground structures or stowaway creepy crawlies — despite humanity’s pretty strong track record of weathering unexpected celestial encounters.
Today’s news coming out of Siberia makes clear our ever-increasing ability to detect and manage these incidents. While asteroids will continue to strike with an always-unwelcome regularity, the impacts are typically manageable and far less catastrophic than some historical precedents… so far. Here are some previous incidents for perspective…
Current Asteroid Activity in Siberia
On Tuesday, northern Siberia took centre stage for a rare celestial event when a small asteroid, with the catchy nickname ‘C0WEPC5’, entered Earth’s atmosphere. The 27-inch-wide (c. 70cm) rock was on collision course with Earth, making it the fourth detected asteroid strike of 2024 and the 11th on record. The European Space Agency (ESA) was first to issue an alert early in the morning, informing the public the object would create a visible fireball in the sky but that any resulting impact would ultimately be harmless.
C0WEPC5 was identified by the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona as an “imminent impactor”, entering the atmosphere over Yakutia in northeastern Siberia at approximately 11:15 a.m. Videos shared on social media show a bright, fast-moving streak burning across the sky before dissipating, though it remains unclear at present time if any debris eventually reached the ground.
Part of a larger trend of increasing asteroid detections thanks to technological advancements and the efforts of organisations like NASA and ESA, 132 known asteroids have passed closer to Earth than the Moon since October 2023, with over 36,000 asteroid fly-bys recorded in total.
Another asteroid, 2020 XR, is set to make a “close” fly-by on Wednesday at a distance of 1.37 million miles. Although significantly larger than the Siberian object — about 1,200 feet (365 metres) in diameter— this asteroid thankfully poses no threat to Earth. Any object passing within 4.6 million miles of Earth is classed as “potentially hazardous”.