While we were all busy getting ready for the holiday season in December , a piece of space tilt was hurtling towards Earth , and on December 18 it score our atmospheric state , became a luminous fireball , and explode with 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear turkey – and we all whole neglect it .

The eruption was the biggest since the infamousChelyabinsk meteorthat blow up over the Russian oblast in 2013 , injuring 100 , and the 2d largest of its kind in 30 old age . Yet , it was potential   only witnessed by what we imagine were bemused ocean lion and surprised heavyweight , as it exploded over the Bering Sea .

US military satellites picked up on the plosion last year and afterwards refer it to NASA to enquire . We are listen about it now , as Dr Kelly Fast , near - Earth object observation programme manager at NASA , was talk about it earlier today at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston , Texas , reportsBBC News .

These are think to be the first pic of the December 18 meteor .

So , what happened ?

The meteor , which was several meters across , come purr through the atmosphere towards Earth at a speed of 32 kilometers ( 20 miles ) per secondly at a steep trajectory of 7 ° . It appeared at 11.50pm UT ( twelve noon local time ) , 25.6 kilometers ( 16 miles ) above the major planet ’s aerofoil , before the friction of the atmosphere caused it to blow up – which it did with an shock of173 kiloton of TNT .

For comparison , the piffling Boy nuclear bomb calorimeter dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 , 1945 , detonated with an muscularity sack of 15 kilotons , and the Fat Man dud omit on Nagasaki three 24-hour interval afterward exploded with 20 kilotons .

According toPeter Brown , a shooting star scientist and prof at the University of Western Ontario , Canada , who first time the meteoroid in measure pick up by infrasound monitoring place globally , the meteor was 10 meter ( 33 pes ) across and had a mass of 1,400 stacks .

These infrasound stations were initially set up during the Cold War to detect nuclear explosions by piece up abject - frequency acoustic wave inaudible to human race .   Finding the source and location of an explosion signify combine the data from multiple station , which could explain the delay in announcing the fireball .

What does this mean for Earth ?

Not a lot , frankly . Earth is regularlypummeled by space rocks . Think how often we describe onmeteor showers(the Lyrids are up next in April , by the mode ) . And 75 percent of Earth ’s surface is body of water , so many burn up over the ocean or vanish into it , and we are none the wiser ( others , of path , like tomake indisputable they are see ) . true , Russia getsmore than its just share , but it ’s the large country in the man so that ’s not too surprising .

Lindley Johnson , terrestrial demurrer officeholder at NASA , told BBC News a meteoroid this sizing is only expected about two or three time every 100 years . This shooting star was also only about 40 percent of Chelyabinsk ’s , which in short outshone the Sun . Luckily we have plenty of people here on Earthmonitoring asteroidsfor possible impact , such as NASA’sCenter for Near - Earth Object Studies , as well as how we could potentiallydeflect them .

So far there is no footage of this late meteor . However , it derive in not far from routes taken by commercial-grade plane , so research worker are having airway check for reported sightings . Not like the Chelyabinsk meteoroid , of   which there is so much footage , researchersresorted to YouTubeto study it .

Wait for itttttt . Chelyabinsk   meteor , February 15 , 2013 .