Small asteroid lights up Siberian sky

A small asteroid streaked across the sky over northern Siberia about an hour after midnight on Wednesday morning, local time. Roughly 70 centimeters in diameter, the celestial object lit up the night for five seconds before disintegrating in a flash. Surveillance cameras and locals with cell phones in hand recorded videos of Asteroid C0WEPC5 as it descended over the Yakutia region.

American astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona were the first to discover the asteroid. It was the “11th confirmed impactor” identified before atmospheric entry. “It will cause a nice bright fireball,” physicist Richard Moissl tweeted seven hours before the asteroid’s fall, announcing the discovery. He was right: