A small 1 meter diameter asteroid was discovered at 20:18 UTC by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky on the 12th of February 2023.
At the time of discovery it was some 145,000 miles (233,000 km) away and travelling towards us at 5.6 miles per second (9km per second) only when it was observed again 30 minutes later did he realise it was on a collision course with Earth.
Sárneczky gave the asteroid a temporary name Sar2667 and reported the discovery to the Minor Planets Center's Near Earth Object page.
At 21:03 astronomers at the Višnjan Observatory in Croatia confirmed it was heading for impact with Earth.
The European Space Agency alerted the public through social media, although I don't think there was any concern of risk to life, owing to it's small size it would most likely disintegrate as it hit our atmosphere.
I was first made aware of it by a post on a astronomy group on Facebook. by then they knew exactly when and where it was going to enter the atmosphere, 02:59 UTC over the English Channel, near the coast of Normandy in France.
There was a map which showed a circle and any place within that circle had the chance of seeing the resulting fireball and I was well within the circle of visibility.
Unfortunately from my location near the city of Southampton in Hampshire on the south coast of England it was cloudy but I thought if it is bright enough I may still see something so I cycled to the carpark of a nearby shopping centre which was the closest highest point giving me a good view of the south east.
I did not know exactly where to point my camera so just looked in the direction of of Le Havre, France, just under 120 miles away.
Bang on time I witnessed a brief flash illuminating the clouds, similar to seeing a flash of lightning from a distant storm, it was faint but noticeable, more so to my eyes than my camera which the video mode is not great in low light conditions.
I was not even sure I picked it up in the video as I could not see it on the camera display but when I uploaded it and watched on my PC monitor I could see it, and I have been able to edit it a bit to make it a little brighter.
Of course I wish there were no clouds so I could have witnessed the fireball, which was spectacular but I am still happy to have seen just that quick flash.
I find it incredible that something so small, so far away and travelling so fast can be spotted and they were able to say, to the second when and where it would hit.
After the atmospheric entry Sar2667 was then given the new designation 2023 CX1. I wonder if anything did make it to the ground, only time will tell.
It was only the 7th asteroid discovered successfully predicted to impact Earth.
Start 00:00. Flash 01:32 End 02:03
Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология I saw a flash!
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