An asteroid of about two kilos crossed the French sky Sunday, December 13, at the end of the afternoon. It has been observed over Champagne-Ardenne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Center-Val-de-Loire, reports France Blue Orleans. It then disintegrated in the area of Montargis (Loiret). The phenomenon was immortalized by many Internet users who posted the images on social networks.
The crossing of “Fireball” of blue-green color was however very fast, of the order of 90,000 km / h. It would have disintegrated about 50 km above the ground, causing a dull noise heard long minutes after the explosion.
Better quality downloaded from my dash cam @Erdayastronaut@AsmaStein@thomas_appere@VigieCiel@AirbusRed@AsteroidWatch@AsteroidDay@AstronomyMag
2020-12-13 1641Z pic.twitter.com/b7jO7sCGY9— Flightlevel150 (@flightlevel150) December 14, 2020
In Lausanne (Switzerland), a motorist was able to film this ball of fire crossing the sky above the road, adds Lyon news. Our colleagues also reveal that in Troyes, the cameras of an association of astronomers have also immortalized the phenomenon.
A rare phenomenon
“It is a phenomenon which is not unprecedented, but which one observes in France only once a year approximately”, told the radio Eric Chariot, director of development at the Astronomical Society of Burgundy, to France Blue Auxerre. “There are often asteroids, but also bright it remains quite rare in our sector. “
But there is no point looking for traces of the asteroid. Vigie-ciel indicates that it totally disintegrated before hitting the Earth.
According to the Société d’Astronomie de Bourgogne, this object would come from the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, relays The mountain. The latter became luminous when it was at an altitude of 87 km and flew over the town of Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine).
– .