This Tuesday, December 3, a meteor crashed in the province of Lakoutie, in Siberia. Currently named C0WEPC5, it was only spotted twelve hours before its impact.
An open-air spectacle. A meteor crashed Wednesday, December 3 in the province of Lakotia in Siberia.
The celestial body was only spotted twelve hours before its impact on earth, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Measuring a little less than 70 cm in diameter according to the ESA, and currently named C0WEPC5, it does not appear to have caused any major damage. He was able to be observed by witnesses.
They had the chance to see this ball of fire in the sky, a real spectacle tinged with several colors.
Asteroids, a real danger
This asteroid, therefore relatively small, did not cause any damage.
This was also anticipated by the ESA. On the other hand, if it had been bigger, the consequences could have been catastrophic.
If it had been larger, it would have been spotted before, and could have been countered thanks, in particular, to the DART program.
This program, tested in 2022, consisted of sending a probe to crash against a space object 11 million kilometers away in order to deviate its course, according to the Observatory of the Côte d'Azur.
This space mission made it possible to divert the trajectory of an asteroid 160 meters in diameter named Dimorphos.
