A small asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere on Sunday morning and lit up the sky over eastern Germany. Videos shared on social media showed the glowing object's descent over Europe, shortly after the Hungarian researcher and self-described "asteroid hunter" Krisztian Sarneczky spotted it from an observatory in Hungary. According to CBS News, experts later confirmed that the light came from a disintegrating meteorite. The 2024 BX1 asteroid, which was temporarily designated Sar2736, landed outside Berlin near Nennhausen around 1:30 am, astronomers and observers said.
Onlookers were able to see the space rock falling from the sky and took to social media to post stunning footage. "Here's the full video of the asteroid #Sar2736, a - 1 m object that broke up some 50 m west of #Belin, #Germany, and probably dropped some meteorites on the ground," Denis Vida, a PhD associate in meteor physics at Western University in Canada and the founder of the Global Meteor Project, wrote.
Take a look at the video below:
Here's the full video of the asteroid #Sar2736, a ~1 m object that broke up some 50 m west of #Belin, #Germany, and probably dropped some meteorites on the ground. Video credit: https://t.co/72o6ZzPNz8 pic.twitter.com/PA73dkqid1
— Denis Vida (@meteordoc) January 21, 2024
"Prague's view of #Sar2736: a minor planet entering Earth's atmosphere on Jan 21, 2024, at 00:32 UT," another user wrote while sharing the video of the fireball.
Prague's view of #Sar2736: a minor planet entering Earth's atmosphere on Jan 21, 2024, at 00:32 UT. pic.twitter.com/KXDnBvzmGX
— Hanjie Tan (@HonkitTan) January 21, 2024
US space agency NASA also confirmed the incident on X about 20 minutes before impact. "Heads Up: A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless fireball west of Berlin near Nennhausen shortly at 1:32am CET. Overseers will see it if it's clear," NASA wrote.
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According to CBS News, Denis Vida explained that the asteroid "probably dropped some meteorites on the ground" as it zoomed through the atmosphere and broke apart. He also said that the asteroid began to disintegrate about 50 kilometres west of Berlin.
This incident marked the 8th time an asteroid was discovered before hitting our planet and the 3rd time that Krisztian Sarneczky made the finding, the New York Post reported. The "asteroid hunter" also discovered a space rock that stuck north of Iceland in 2022 and one that exploded over the English Channel during last year's Super Bowl.
Notably, the next possible dangerous collision could happen in 2182, when there is a 1 in 2,700 chance that a small near-Earth asteroid named Bennu could penetrate the atmosphere.
