Footage captures moment asteroid lights up the sky while crashing to Earth

Amazing footage has captured the moment an asteroid lit up the sky while plummeting down to Earth.

If you think about asteroids hitting Earth, many people's minds automatically assume it is something controversial.

That is so often not the case though, and a recent example of an asteroid hitting Earth is a perfect example of that.

Just this weekend, a 'harmless' fireball from a disintegrating meteorite provided quite a show in the German night sky before crashing into Earth on early Sunday morning.

The 2024 BX1 asteroid crash-landed outside of Berlin near Nennhausen at around 1:30am local time, astronomers and observers have announced.

The asteroid, which was temporarily designated as Sar2736, was first discovered by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky several hours before it came crashing down on Earth, according to The International Astronomical Union.

After multiple sightings were reported, NASA confirmed the incident in a post on X.

The space agency penned: "Heads Up: A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless fireball west of Berlin near Nennhausen shortly at 1:32am CET. Overseers will see it if it’s clear!"

Sárneczky, who dubs himself as an 'asteroid hunter, wrote on X: "The discovery images of the imminent impactor #2024BX1 (aka #Sar2736 ) with the 60-cm Schmidt Telescope at #Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory (#konkolyobs) in #Hungary."

The footage circulating on social media of this asteroid heading for Earth is quite incredible, as onlookers were able to see the space rock falling from the sky.

It is actually fairly uncommon for an asteroid to be spotted before it hits Earth, with the 2024 BX1 only the eighth of its kind to be discovered prior to impact.

In fact, it is the third time Sárneczky has made such a finding, making him a key player in the field.

Here's the full video of the asteroid #Sar2736, a ~1 m object that broke up some 50 m west of #Belin, #Germany, and probably dropped some meteorites on the ground. Video credit: https://t.co/72o6ZzPNz8 pic.twitter.com/PA73dkqid1

— Denis Vida (@meteordoc) January 21, 2024

This comes just weeks after NASA predicted that a previously 'lost' asteroid could hit Earth this year.

The asteroid in question is the catchily-named Asteroid 2007 FT3, which was first spotted in 2007 before quickly going missing.

Now, however, it has been predicted that there is a chance that the asteroid could hit Earth.

While the asteroid is not large enough to cause an extinction level event from its impact, it's certainly large enough to do a lot of damage to a continent.

If it did hit the Earth, it could unleash the energy of around 2.6 billion tons of TNT.

That's around 2600 megatons of TNT, or around 48 Tsar Bombas, the largest nuclear warhead ever detonated.