A falling asteroid lights up the sky in Russia's remote Yakutia

An asteroid lit up the sky in Russia's remote far eastern region of Yakutia early on Wednesday, producing a fireball before likely burning up in the atmosphere, officials and scientists said.

The emergencies ministry in Yakutia said all official bodies had been placed on alert as the asteroid approached but that no damage had been reported after its descent.

"Residents of Olekminsk and Lensk districts were able to observe in the night a tail similar to a comet and a flash," it said.

The European Space Agency, writing on X, said the asteroid was believed to have measured 70 cm (28 inches) across and was spotted about 12 hours in advance of its appearance in the sky. It said it entered the atmosphere at 1.15 am local time.

"Thanks to observations from astronomers around the world, our alert system was able to predict this impact to within +/- 10 seconds," the agency said.

Astronomer Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen's University in Belfast, quoted by New Scientist magazine, said before the fireball appeared that the asteroid was "a small one, but it will still be quite spectacular, visible for hundreds of kilometres".