CHELYABINSK, Russia – The night sky over the Chelyabinsk region was briefly illuminated on Friday by a brilliant object, identified by witnesses as a potentially large and bright meteor, also known as a bolide. This fleeting celestial visitor was observed by numerous local residents.
Footage captured by a local resident and shared online provides a glimpse of the phenomenon. The video shows the darkness being pierced by an intense flash, followed milliseconds later by a distinct fiery sphere descending through the atmosphere. This incandescent body was visible for only a moment before it appeared to burn up completely, leaving no lasting trace.
For the Chelyabinsk region, any report of a bright object streaking across the sky carries a certain historical weight. The area gained international notoriety on February 15, 2013, when a superbolide with an estimated diameter of 20 meters entered the atmosphere, causing a powerful airburst high above the city. That event resulted in widespread window breakage, structural damage, and injuries to over 1,600 people, although remarkably, there were no fatalities. A significant fragment of the 2013 meteor, weighing around 600 kilograms, was later recovered from Lake Chebarkul and is now a prominent exhibit in a local museum.
In contrast to the dramatic and impactful events of 2013, Friday night`s sighting appears to have been merely a spectacular visual display. The object seemingly disintegrated high in the upper atmosphere, posing no threat to those on the ground. It served as a stark, but ultimately harmless, reminder that Earth’s atmosphere is constantly interacting with debris from space, occasionally putting on a dazzling, if slightly unnerving given the local history, show.
