Hours after being observed in space, asteroid slams into Earth

For just the seventh time in history, an asteroid was observed in space before hitting Earth.

The object, Sar2667, entered the Earth’s atmosphere early Monday morning over the English Channel. It was observed on Sunday by the International Meteor Organization.

The organization predicted a bright fireball would occur over the skies of Great Britain and France – which is exactly what happened. As it came crashing to Earth, many people tweeted videos and photos of the fireball in the sky. The fireball remained in the sky for several seconds.

Observers believe the asteroid was about 1 meter wide. It was projected to come down near the French town of Le Havre.

Here’s how our planetary defense system works

Here’s how our planetary defense system works

NASA has been funding search programs to observe the night sky in order to discover as many asteroids as possible.

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It’s unclear how much, if any, of the asteroid made it all the way to the ground. Small asteroids tend to lose much of their mass in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.

The last time an asteroid was observed before hitting Earth was in November when WJ1 was seen over the skies of Toronto. That object was about 1 meter wide.