A meteor exploded in the Earth's atmosphere in December: it was like 10 atomic bombs, according to NASA

A large ball of fire exploded in the Earth's atmosphere in December, the second largest in 30 years and the largest since the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia six years ago.

However, the event – which released an energy equivalent to ten atomic bombs like that of Hiroshima – has gone almost unnoticed until now as it exploded over the Bering Sea, at the same time. off the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

Lindley Johnson, NASA's global defense officer, told BBC News that such a fireball is expected only two or three times every 100 years.

Without having been detected before, around noon local time on December 18, the asteroid traveled the atmosphere at a speed of 32 km / s on a pronounced seven degree course.

From a height of several meters, the space rock exploded at 25,600 meters above the surface of the Earth, with an impact energy of 173 kilotons.

"That accounted for 40% of Chelyabinsk's energy, but it was above the Bering Sea, so it did not have the same kind of effect and that's not the case." 39, has not appeared in the news, "said Kelly Fast, head of the near-Earth object observation program in NASA" This is another thing we have for our defense: it there is a lot of water on the planet, "he said.

Fast presented the details of the event during the conference on planetary and planetary science at The Woodlands, near Houston, Texas.

Military satellites have witnessed the explosion of last year and NASA has received a notification from the US Air Force.

Johnson said the fireball has arrived in an area not far from the routes used by commercial aircraft between North America and Asia. The researchers checked with the airlines to see if there were any observations of this event.