Late last year, a meteor exploded in the skies above Russia with a force 10 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. But despite the meteor鈥檚 power, it somehow went unnoticed until recently.
Western University鈥檚 Peter Brown says he was reviewing data from the nuclear comprehensive test ban organization which logs large seismic events around the world.
He spotted a large event over the Bering Sea which occurred back on December 18 of last year.
鈥淚 immediately thought this must be a fireball,鈥� Brown told CTV London. 鈥淧robably a pretty big one."
A 鈥渇ireball鈥� is a NASA classification, which refers to 鈥渆xceptionally bright鈥� meteors that can be seen over a wide area.
With researchers nailing down a time and a place, images of the meteor captured by Japan鈥檚 Himiwari satellite were identified and posted online by Oxford University Meteorologist Simon Proud.
鈥淭he meteor is really clear here - bright orange fireball against the blue + white background!鈥�
While the meteor may not look too impressive in the photos, Brown says that looks can be deceiving.
"You would have seen a second sun in the sky,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淏ut this was so much energy that was released it would have outshone the noon day sun.鈥�
The meteor was estimated to be between 10 and 14 metres in diameter, and have an impact energy of 173 kilotons, making it the second-most powerful of its kind in 30 years, with only the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 ahead of it.
The meteor entered the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere around noon, traveling 17.4 kilometres per second on a steep seven-degree trajectory, before exploding 25.6 kilometres above the Earth鈥檚 surface.
Brown鈥檚 collegue Peter Wiegert created animations charting the meteor鈥檚 path, studying the route it took to see if it reveals anything about the meteor.
鈥淭his one is, certainly, a little bit different from the others,鈥� Wiegart said. 鈥淪o it's quite intriguing."
Brown says that if the meteor had entered the atmosphere just hours before it did, Canadians would have been significantly more aware of the resulting explosion.
"If the object had had the same path in the atmosphere, but had just come in four hours earlier, it actually would have come right over northern Alberta,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淎nd, in fact, very near the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta."
Even if the meteor had hit a more populated area like Alberta, Brown says that it鈥檚 unlikely any lives would have been lost.
Like in case of the Chelyabinsk meteor, the resulting sonic boom would likely have blown out windows, and caused some structural damage to buildings nearby.
