A bright fireball streaked across the skies of Yakutia, Russia, on Tuesday, December 3, as asteroid C0WEPC5 entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. The asteroid, about 70 cm in diameter, lit up the sky at 16:15 UTC, creating a dazzling fireball that left many observers stunned. Stunning footage shared on social media captured the moment, quickly going viral among space enthusiasts.
The European Space Agency (ESA) had detected the asteroid hours before its impact, confirming it would pose no threat. ESA posted an alert on X, noting that the asteroid would likely produce a harmless but spectacular fireball over northern Siberia. The agency’s prediction proved accurate, as the object disintegrated harmlessly, with no reports of damage on the ground.
This event follows a series of recent asteroid sightings, including the fireball of asteroid 2024 RW1 over the Philippines in September.
Space agencies and monitoring networks such as ESA, NASA, and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) continue to track Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) closely, providing early warnings of potential impacts. The Yakutia fireball served as another reminder of the importance of these detection systems in monitoring cosmic visitors to Earth.