As reports suggest Earth will have a close shave with a 1,345-foot (410m) asteroid in 2032, we look back at five that created a stunning spectacle but left Earth largely unscathed.


The Chelyabinsk asteroid which caused widespread damage in Russia's southern Urals in February maybe the best known, but it's far from the only asteroid sighting captured for posterity.

One of the earliest sightings to be caught on camera was of the Great Daylight Fireball of 1972. Estimated to have been travelling at nine miles per second, it streaked across Utah before flying over Canada.

Police officers out on patrol appear to have a good track record in spotting the flaming fireballs - two of the clips featured above were filmed by in-car cameras fitted to police cars.

With increasing numbers of CCTV systems and dashboard cameras in vehicles, it seems likely that such sightings will increasingly be captured on video.