During the early hours of this morning (Feb 13), an asteroid exploded over the English Channel after it hurled through the Earth's atmosphere. The small 1m asteroid was visible as far south as Paris, France, with people in southern England and Wales having the best view.
When the astronomical rock, currently being known as Sar2667, exploded, it created a shooting star and an 'airburst' - which is a cosmic event that occurs when a comet or meteorite explodes high in the Earth's atmosphere, instead of striking the surface.
Speaking to Wales Online, American Physicist and airburst specialist Mark Boslough, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, explained that although "airbursts of this size happen somewhere several times per year" it is very rare they are discovered in advance. He added that this airburst was only the seventh time in history one has ever been discovered advance.
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Mr Boslough added that it was the first time in history this had happened "over a populated area with enough warning to get data". Mark Boslough is a research professor at University of New Mexico, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and chair of the Asteroid Day Expert Panel.
Many people in the UK rushed online as they captured the incredible celestial event on their phones. Around 3am this morning, one Twitter user, @KadeFlowers, posted a video of the moment from Brighton, which you can watch below, writing: "Got It! How beautiful! #Sar2667 #Asteroid."
Another, @Aljibaalu, tweeted: "Just saw it and it was magnificent. Came down vertically on time. 2:59. Green like a bright emerald then bright orange really quickly. Absolutely phenomenal view of the #asteroid #sar2667 tonight over the English Channel facing France."
@Tw__astro explained: "ATTENTION! A small asteroid is expected to safely impact the French-English channel in ~4 hours time, 03:00:03 UT tomorrow. Object size is around ~1 meter and should appear as bright as the Moon momentarily as it enters the atmosphere."
According to NASA, asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the sun. Although asteroids orbit the sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them live in the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroids are left over from the formation of our solar system. Our solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago when a big cloud of gas and dust collapsed. When this happened, most of the material fell to the centre of the cloud and formed the sun.
Because asteroids formed in different locations at different distances from the sun, no two asteroids are alike. Asteroids aren’t all round like planets. They have jagged and irregular shapes.
Some asteroids are hundreds of miles in diameter, but many more are as small as pebbles. Most asteroids are made of different kinds of rocks, but some have clays or metals, such as nickel and iron.
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