Scientists have confirmed the fall of the asteroid Cowepc5 in the area between the cities of Olekminsk and Lensk in Yakutia. This event occurred on December 3 at 19:14 Moscow time, just 900 kilometers from the epicenter of the famous Tunguska meteorite of 1908, MIR 24 reports.
According to preliminary estimates, the diameter of the cosmic body was about one meter, and the speed of its entry into the atmosphere reached 16 kilometers per second. The brightness of the flash that accompanied the fall of the asteroid was so great that it was compared to the light of several full Moons.
The asteroid was discovered by astronomers at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona just a few hours before it fell to Earth.
As noted by the scientific director of the Ka-Dar observatory Stas Korotkiy, this is already the eleventh case when scientists managed to predict the fall of an asteroid in advance, RIA Novosti writes.