Last week, a meteorite exploded over the Russian city of Lipetsk, illuminating the summer sky with a bright flash. While some enjoyed the show, others were worried that they had not noticed his approach.
NASA is part of an international effort to detect objects entering our atmosphere from space. But usually they manage to track large rocks. Meteorites with a diameter of less than 20 feet are unlikely to cause any harm, so they are not focused on them.
It is worth remembering the meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013. Its width parameters reached about 60 feet. The danger is not the object itself, but the shock wave created by it, the strength of which is sometimes comparable to a small nuclear explosion. Such small meteorites are common and fly to Earth about once a year. Therefore, the object is not dangerous, but allows collectors to disassemble the remaining pieces. The meteorite collapsed before falling to Earth, but some small fragments can be found at the explosion site.
