Incredible footage of a huge asteroid exploding over the English Channel was caught on CCTV. Watch below:
Known as Sar2667, the one-metre sized asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere on Monday (13 February).
It exploded and disintegrated as a meteor over the coast of Normandy, France, along the English Channel.
Advert
The clip above was captured by Em Oliver, a farmer in Gower, who somehow managed to sleep through it all.
After waking up to the news the following morning, the 35-year-old ran 'straight to the cameras' on her farm to see if it had been picked up by her CCTV.
After posting the clip on social media, Em told WalesOnline: "When you see the headline, 'Huge asteroid explodes just outside London in historic airburst first,' Farmer Em goes straight to the cameras and YEEESSSS - it could be seen from Gower!"
"Glad I didn't see it in person though." she added.
Advert
"I may have run for my life if I saw it. It's amazing to even see it on here!"
So, in case you were wondering, the reason why Sar2667 looked so bright on camera is because it caused an 'airburst'.
This can happen when a meteoroid hits Earth's atmosphere with such immense pressure that it rapidly compresses the air in its path.
Followed by increased ram pressure, which is when the air in front of the meteoroid gets compressed, the temperature will skyrocket.
Advert
Em continued: "I saw the article online about the asteroid being seen at 3am so checked our security cameras at that time and saw it on there!
"It's the second time I've caught something on my security camera.
"We didn't hear anything [at the time]."
She also added that her animals were fine, saying: "There was no sign of any issues with the animals this morning."
Because of the size of the asteroid, officials said that it would have been able to be seen as far as Bristol and Cardiff in the UK and as far south as Tours, France.
Advert
And people in Belgium and the Netherlands would have also been able to see the explosion in some capacity.
The International Meteor Organisation said that the meteor would have caused a 'fireball' impact upon landing roughly 4km (2.5 miles) from the French shore.
Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist and airburst specialist, Mark Boslough, told the publication that these types of events are 'rarely discovered in advance'.
He said that they happen a few times a year, but most go unnoticed because people aren't waiting around to capture them.
Anish Vij