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A resident of Sandpoint, Idaho in the United States captured a fireball that fell from the sky on December 23, 2020.
The video was sent to KREM, a CBS-affiliated television station serving the Spokane and Idaho areas. The clip shows the meteor falling north of Sandpoint. It glows brightly before disappearing behind a small mountain ridge.
Meteor Sighting in Idaho
The KREM viewer captured the footage at his mother’s house in the Upper Pack River Valley. According to the American Meteor Society, two other residents also saw the meteor, with a third report still pending.
A Troy, Idaho resident said in his report that he saw the meteor for 3.5 seconds. The viewer, known only as Ty, explained:
“I was on the phone with my wife, she was about 50 miles north, driving. He was driving in Troy. We both saw it at the same time. Mine was yellowish orange, he saw it green.
See: Meteor falling in Idaho
Video embedded here may not display in this article, depending on your location settings. If that’s the case, head over to YouTube and watch it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6yNF5eaX8
Christmas asteroid passed by the Earth
On December 25, a space rock approximately 200 meters wide, designated Asteroid 501647 (2014 SD224), approached Earth. While it doesn’t sound very big, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty.
We say “close approach” but there was no danger of it hitting Earth; the meteor reached 11,806,049 kilometers.
According to NASA’s close-approximation table, a much smaller asteroid, designated 2020 XY, also passed on the same day. The smallest space rock reached 22,369,356 kilometers from Earth.
NASA labeled both asteroids as Near Earth Objects (NEO) and confirmed that asteroid 501647 (2014 SD224) was traveling at a speed of around 35,406 kilometers per hour.
Asteroids heading for Earth
One of the first visitors on NASA’s “Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring” list, the 2009 asteroid JF1, was discovered more than a decade ago. It measures only 12 meters in diameter and will fly or hit Earth in 2022.
Another small asteroid, known as 2018 VP1, is expected to arrive sometime between 2020 and 2025. The largest asteroid on the list is not expected to come into contact with Earth until the year 2880.
That lord of a space rock is called 29075 (1950 AD), and it is almost three times the size of the Empire State Building; approximately 1.3 kilometers in diameter. It could cause significant damage if it hits Earth.
When is space rock potentially dangerous?
According to NASA, a PHA is defined based on “parameters that measure the potential of the asteroid to make threats close to Earth.” That means an asteroid will be classified as PHA if it is within 0.05 AU of Earth.
Any fast-moving space object (mainly comets and asteroids) that approaches about 7.48 million kilometers is considered “potentially dangerous” by cautious space organizations.
As of January 2020, 2,044 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are known, of which an estimated 157 are more than a kilometer in diameter.
Also read: Laboratory development device to help Earth dodge asteroids
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