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Mystery glowing ball streaks through skies above Russia: Footage of unidentified object was captured close to site of the most powerful meteor explosion in recent history that landed with the force of 185 Hiroshima bombs

A mysterious 'UFO' was observed firing across the sky in remote central Russia
The bright light looked like it was headed for a collision with the Earth's surface
It was observed a few hundred miles from a famous explosion site 111 years ago
No crash has been reported and no debris has been retrieved from any landing

A mystery glowing ball was spotted streaking across the Russian night sky close to the site of the largest meteor explosion in modern history.

A dashcam captured a dazzling flash changing colour from green to yellow to orange in a remote area of Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia.

It was spotted near the impact site of the Tunguska meteor that struck the region with the force of 185 Hiroshima bombs in 1908.

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Did UFO 'hit' Russian meteorite blasting it to smi...

A dashcam captured a dazzling flash changing colour from green to yellow to orange in a remote area of Krasnoyarsk region in Russia. One theory is that the spectacular luminous UFO streaking over the Siberian hills was caused by a meteor yet so far there is no evidence for it

Pyotr Bondarev, from Tura village where the flash was seen, said: 'The night got bright and warm, as if a giant light bulb was switched on in the sky'.

Experts believe the object seen streaking over the Siberian hills was also a meteor but no conclusive evidence has been found so far.

The shining body was also seen as far as 250miles (402km) away, but appeared less, bright.

Witnesses say it appeared to be heading for a crash landing.

No debris from a meteorite has been found so far and experts are keeping an open mind as to what caused the stunning spectacle.

The latest sighting lies several hundred miles from the site of the monumental Tunguska Event 111 years ago which caused devastation in the region

Mr Bondarev added: 'It was about 7.30pm, it was dark. I was outside having a walk with my wife and children, when the sky flashed green and yellow.

'Many people saw it and got very excited.'

Another local source said: 'It's impossible to tell what the shining object was. It might have been a meteor or something else.'

Krasnoyarsk Kirensky Physics University researcher Sergey Karpov said it was likely a small meteorite.

'Most likely it was something up to 10 centimetres [4inches] in diameter',' he said.

But this has not been confirmed by the Russian emergencies ministry.

There has been no suggestion that a stray missile or debris from a space launch was behind the 'UFO' sighting.

One theory is that the spectacular luminous UFO streaking over the Siberian hills was caused by a meteor yet so far there is no conclusive evidence that anything has landed nearby

The Tunguska explosion is thought to have been produced by a comet or asteroid hurtling through Earth's atmosphere at over 33,500 miles per hour (50, 000km/h), resulting in an explosion equal to 185 Hiroshima bombs as pressure and heat rapidly increased

Some have claimed it was a 'second Tunguska', as the site of the explosion 111 years ago which caused devastation across the region is within a few hundred miles.

More than 770 square miles (2,000 sq km) of forest was wiped out after a fireball - believed to be some 330ft (100m) wide - tore through the atmosphere and exploded in 1908, according to scientists.

An estimated 80million trees were destroyed and thousands of charred reindeer carcasses were left behind.

It is believed to have exploded three to seven miles (5 to 12km) above the earth's surface yet despite the carnage there was no impact crater.

There were no reports of casualties in the sparsely populated area, despite the power of the impact.

However, some experts have disputed the cause of 1908 Tunguska explosion.

The remote Tura village where the bright light was observed streaking over the Siberian hills in Russia. Tura is a mere few hundred miles from an infamous explosion caused by a meteorite landing over a century ago in the remote forests of Russia that caused devastation

No debris from a meteorite - a meteor that strikes the ground - has been found so far and experts are keeping an open mind as to what caused the stunning spectacle

WHAT WAS THE CHELYABINSK METEOR STRIKE?

A meteor that blazed across southern Ural Mountain range in February 2013 was the largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century, after the Tunguska event of 1908.

More than 1,600 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs, as it landed near the city of Chelyabinsk.

The fireball measuring 18 meters across, screamed into Earth's atmosphere at 41,600 mph.

Much of the meteor landed in a local lake called Chebarkul.

Other than the latest find, scientists have already uncovered more than 12 pieces from Lake Chebarkul since the February 15 incident. However, only five of them turned out being real.

What did they find in the meteorites?

Analysis of recovered Chelyabinsk meteorites revealed an unusual form of jadeite entombed inside glassy materials known as shock veins, which form after rock crashes, melts and re-solidifies.

By calculating the rate at which the jadeite must have solidified, the team were able to determine that the asteroid formed after a collision.

Jadeite, which is one of the minerals in the gemstone jade, forms only under extreme pressure and high temperature.

The form of jadeite found in the Chelyabinsk meteorites indicates that the asteroid's parent body hit another asteroid that was at least 150 metres (490ft) in diameter.

Sneaky Meteor Evades Earthling Detection, Explodes with Force of 10 Atomic Bombs

On Dec. 18, 2018, a school bus-size meteor exploded over Earth with an impact energy of roughly 10 atomic bombs. According to NASA, the blast was the second-largest meteor impact since the organization began tracking them 30 years ago, bested only by the infamous fireball that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in Feb. 2013.

Despite this, hardly anyone noticed it was happening — and nobody saw it coming.

As to why one of the largest meteor impacts in recent history may have totally passed you by, that’s likely because the space rock in question shattered over the Bering Sea, a cold stretch of the Pacific Ocean between Russia and Alaska, miles from inhabited land. [The 10 Biggest Impact Craters on Earth]

NASA learned about the December impact thanks to the U.S. Air Force, whose missile-monitoring satellites were among the first to detect the blast. The rumble of the impact also registered on infrasound detectors — stations that measure low-frequency sound waves inaudible to human ears — around the world, giving scientists enough data to draw some basic conclusions about the sneaky meteor.

According to NASA, that meteor weighed about 1,500 tons (1,360 metric tons), had a diameter of about 32 feet (10 meters), and was traveling through the atmosphere at about 71,582 mph (115,200 kilometers per hour) when it exploded. The blast occurred about 15.5 miles (25 km) over the ocean and erupted with an energy equivalent to 173 kilotons of TNT — roughly 10 times the energy of the atomic bomb that the United States detonated over Hiroshima during World War II.

The world’s asteroid-monitoring groups failed to see the rock headed our way likely due to its smallish size. Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, told New Scientist that most modern telescopes are best able to detect objects measuring several hundred meters or more in diameter, making smaller objects like this one easy to miss. NASA asteroid hunters are most concerned about identifying near-Earth objects measuring 460 feet (140 m) across, which have the potential to obliterate entire US states if allowed to pass through the atmosphere, Live Science previously reported.

The December 2018 impact only came to attention this week thanks, in part, to a presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas that was delivered by Kelly Fast, NASA’s near-Earth objects observations program manager. Fast told BBC News that the December event exploded with “40 percent the energy release of Chelyabinsk,” but didn’t show up in the news because of the impact’s relatively remote location.

The Chelyabinsk meteor, which measured 62 feet (19 m) wide, passed over mainland Russia and was recorded by many motorists. The resulting shockwaves injured more than 1,200 people.