On this day in 2013 the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded in an air burst over Chelyabinsk Oblast, at a height of about 29.7 km.

The explosion generated a bright flash, producing a hot cloud of dust and gas that entered Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia.

It was caused by an approximately 18 m, 9,100-tonne near-Earth asteroid that entered the atmosphere at a shallow 18.3 ± 0.4 degree angle with a speed relative to Earth of 19.16 ± 0.15 kilometres per second (69,000 km/h).

The light from the meteor was briefly brighter than the Sun, visible as far as 100 km away. It was observed in a wide area of the region and in neighbouring republics.

Some eyewitnesses also reported feeling intense heat from the fireball.