A small asteroid, what some are calling a meteoroid, struck Earth’s atmosphere on February 12th over northern France. The little space rock was just one meter wide (about 3 feet wide). The International Meteor Organization said that it could be the source of a potential meteorite fall. Any bits recovered could be the subject of future studies.
“2023 CX1” entered the atmosphere in the early hours of Monday morning and travelled east over the coast of Normandy, France, across the English Channel. As it encountered atmospheric drag, it burned up as a bright meteor visible from Northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom before entering the sea off the coast of France.
#French media published footage of a meteoroid flight, which was noticed this night by the people of France and England. Meteoroid Sar 2667 entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned over the English Channel. pic.twitter.com/L1xxVdNHsQ
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 13, 2023
This is just the 7th time that a meteor was discovered before impacting Earth. Just a couple of months ago, astronomers discovered a meteor hours before it struck Canada.
Krisztián Sárneczky of Hungary made the discovery of the object, which has been given the designation Sar2667, just hours before its predicted impact.
The last asteroid discovered just before striking Earth, 2022 WJ1, entered the air over Canada on November 19, 2022.
What’s more, this object – Sar2667 – struck Earth’s atmosphere at almost the 10-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk explosion over Russia. That object struck on February 15, 2013, creating a shock wave that broke windows in several cities in Russia.
