Asteroid hits Earth in "magnificent" spectacle over Europe [View all]

BY LI COHEN

FEBRUARY 13, 2023 / 12:41 PM / CBS NEWS

While the U.S. was busy celebrating the Super Bowl on Sunday night, Europeans had their own spectacle. Early Monday morning, a bright flash streaked across the skies over western Europe as an asteroid discovered just hours earlier made its impact with Earth's atmosphere.

The asteroid, dubbed Sar2667, was first detected on the evening of Feb. 12 by astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky in Hungary. He told Space.com that he found the asteroid during a routine near-Earth object hunt using a 2-foot telescope.

"It was immediately obvious that it was an NEO, but it wasn't particularly fast across the sky," he said, "as it was heading right towards us, and it was faint."

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After additional observatories confirmed its existence and trajectory, European Space Agency Operations put out a statement Sunday evening, saying the 1-meter meteoroid was expected to safely strike the atmosphere over northern France later in the night.

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