A meteoroid has been filmed spectacularly lighting up the sky as it hurtled through the Earth’s atmosphere, looking like a fireball in the night.
The 1m projectile was accurately predicted for just the seventh time in history, meaning many keen space observers were poised for the viewing.
Named Sar2667, the small meteoroid flashed over France and the English Channel in the early hours of Monday morning (local time).
It created a magical shooting star effect before burning up with a bright explosion.
The European Space Agency tweeted that the space rock’s prediction was an example of “rapid advances in global detection capabilities”.
The meteoroid was calculated to enter the Earth’s atmosphere over northern France after reportedly being spotted just hours earlier.
Tweet from @esa
Space.com writes that the meteoroid was spotted by Krisztián Sárneczkyat Konkoly Observatory’s Piszkéstető Station in Hungary.
The information was passed along to the European Space Agency, hours before it fell into the atmosphere.
“I discovered this small body during a routine NEO [near Earth object] hunt,” Mr Sárneczky told Space.com.
“It was immediately obvious that it was an NEO, but it wasn’t particularly fast across the sky, as it was heading right towards us, and it was faint.”
Tweet from @shuttletvnews
Witnesses described a “spectacular” flash in the darkness as they tracked the fireball.
“I just stood at my window and turned on my phone. I wasn’t expecting much but it really was amazing,” wrote one Twitter user.
The European Space Agency said the object would enter Earth’s atmosphere and strike the surface around the French city of Rouen.
