It’s the 11th on the list of asteroids discovered BEFORE they enter the Earth atmosphere. So the 11th predicted shooting star in human history!
The 11th near Earth asteroid to be discovered before it entered the Earth atmosphere
☄️🎇Incoming! The 12th ever imminent impactor discovered before atmospheric entry is on it’s way to cause a harmless meteor in about 7 hours from now (~16:15 UTC +/- 5 minutes) over Siberia. With an estimated size of ~70 cm diameter it will cause a nice bright fireball #C0WECP5 pic.twitter.com/yY8IpUlZHe
— Richard Moissl (@Richard_M_F) December 3, 2024
C0WEPC5 is a small asteroid that has been discovered a few hours ago (December 3rd, 2024, 05h55min UT) at Kitt-PeakBok (V00) observatory. Shortly after its discovery, warnings were issued to get some more observations, as the small object, coming from the asteroid belt, was on an impact trajectory with the Earth.
A nice fireball to forecast over Eastern Siberia on December 3rd, around 16h 14min UT
The following 20 observations confirmed it: C0WEPC5 is to be the 10th asteroid to be discovered before it enters the earth atmosphere. As the object is not very big (probably meter-sized), it won’t damage anything on the ground, but it should become a dramatic fireball when it enters the air, just like what was observed with the previous ones, 2024 UQ, 2024 RW1, or 2024 CX1 that also impacted the earth this year.
From observations, the impact timing is currently December 3, 2024, 16h 14min 24sec (+/- 17sec) over a position around long. = +118.63+/-12° ; lat. = 60.827+/-0.032°, which is above Eastern Siberia, not that far from Tunguska impact site, 4 hours from now!
Here is a monitoring webcam not far from the impact zone :
Last update : December 3rd, 2024, 12h 22min UT