Dazzling video captures moment an asteroid slams into Earth

The video was captured by a webcam in a rural area west of Johannesburg,  reports the Washington Post. It shows the fiery remnants of an asteroid disintegrating in Earth’s atmosphere over Botswana on Saturday night. While the video is dazzling, it also is a bit disturbing. The asteroid was only discovered by NASA hours before it slammed into Earth. Thankfully, it was only six feet across so it was able to burn up before hitting the ground. But there are thousands of asteroids up to half a mile wide, or greater, in our solar system alone. If one of them comes hurtling to Earth, we could have only days, if that, between when it is spotted and when it hits–and that result would be more devastation than dazzling.