The dramatic moment an asteroid entered the earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated has been captured on camera by an expert astronomer.
Dr Michael Aye, a researcher at the Berlin Institute for Planetary Research, captured the extraterrestrial object as it exploded high in the atmosphere above Germany on Sunday, January 21.
Dr Aye’s footage shows a bright, white ball of flame rapidly falling towards the earth as the rock – which the expert said was roughly one metre in diameter – was set alight.
The expert captured what is a common occurrence in the atmosphere but one rarely seen on camera.
He was only able to see the phenomenon because of a tipoff from a friend he received just as he “was about to get the dog ready for a walk”.
The astronomer’s footage, which only captures the explosion for a split second, came following a tip from his friend Franck Marchis, a world-renowned planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute.
Dr Aye said he was preparing for a nighttime walk on January 21 when he received a message from Dr Marchis.
The scientist said the meteor was detected approximately three hours before it “landed” on Sunday by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky, who captured it on a long-range radar.
The object detonated on entry at around 1.30am that morning near the town of Nennhausen in Brandenburg.
According to NASA, when it arrived, it disintegrated “as a harmless fireball”.
Dr Aye said a meteor of roughly one metre in size was likely a common occurrence, with dozens of similar entries possible every night.
He said: “We get a lot of material every day. I’ve looked into it again. The estimate is that we get between 40 and 100 tonnes of material every night.”
“And a size of one metre is quite common. The smaller it is, the less visible it is. The bigger it is, the more material gets gassified, i.e. burned.”
Meteors burn up in the earth’s atmosphere thanks to air pressure and friction applied on entry.
Air compresses extremely quickly ahead of the objects, which causes temperatures to rise until the meteor glows red and ultimately explodes.
