Asteroid oevr Great Lakes
© illustration PX FuelThe asteroid landed in Lake Huron on Tuesday.
The shattered remains of an asteroid now lie on the floor of one of North America's Great Lakes after travelling from beyond Mars to rain down on Earth in a blaze of fire.

Numerous eyewitnesses reported seeing the raging fireball streak across the sky on Tuesday night and experts calculate that it travelled nearly half a billion kilometers before coming to rest in its watery grave on the floor of Lake Huron.

Meteor scientist Peter Brown reported that the trajectory of the space rock's flight reveal that it travelled from the asteroid belt beyond Mars before hitting our planet.

The University of Western Ontario astronomer shared observatory footage on Twitter which captured the space visitor lighting up the night sky.


Even miniscule fragments of meteors burn brightly when they enter Earth's atmosphere. Brown estimates that Tuesday's fireball was created by a much larger hunk of space shrapnel, which he estimated to be the size of a softball.

The American Meteor Society recorded at least 20 sightings of the asteroid from various locations on North America's eastern seaboard.


There have been no reports of any people or property suffering any damage as a result of the asteroid strike. However, space rocks can wreak havoc when they smash into our planet. The Chelyabinsk meteor, which also landed in a lake, left over 100 people hospitalized and damaged over 7,000 buildings when it slammed into Russia in 2013.

The United Nations fears that the possibility of an asteroid hitting a densely populated area of Earth isn't being taken seriously enough so it designated June 30 as International Asteroid Day to raise awareness about the potentially catastrophic occurrence.