Footage taken in China shows a huge fireball piercing the atmosphere and illuminating the sky as it accelerates toward the ground. See here:
In what is only a standard view for 2020, the object, believed to be a meteor, was filmed falling toward the ground in Nangqian County in Qinghai Province in northwest China.
Although it has not yet been confirmed what the victims are, no casualties have been reported, and the incident happened on Wednesday (December 23rd) around 7am.
Different parts of the footage show it falling steeply towards the hills and rural areas.
One of the videos, which was shared on Twitter by Weibo, was posted by a scientific blogger – it captures the moment in which it can be seen from passengers on a flight.
Local resident Dan Ba said he saw a fireball when he was taking his child to school.
Speaking to Pear Video, he said: “It started very little, but three minutes later it became very big and great.”
The main writer of the Chinese scientific site Guokr told Beijing News that it looks like a car – a form of a very bright meteor.
It was also filmed by the China Center for Earthquake Networks which said on social media that at 7.25am it had reports of suspicious car land between Nangqian County and Yusu County.
Maybe it could hint at what is in store for us – an asteroid named Apophis after the ancient Egyptian god of chaos is accelerating and could crash to Earth in just under 50 years. Great.
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii say the asteroid is accelerating due to uneven radiation.
Dave Tholen, one of the astronomers, explained to Gizmodo: “The light radiated by the body gives that body a tiny, tiny thrust. The warmer side of the asteroid pushes a little harder than the colder because the warmer side emits more light (at invisible infrared wavelengths) so on the body a net non-gravitational force acts.
“It’s such a tiny force that it’s not noticeable for larger objects, but the smaller the object, the easier it is to detect the effect.”
It was previously thought that there was no chance of an asteroid hitting Earth, but scientists now believe it could hit on April 12, 2068.
At least we all had a chance to sort things out before the big day.