Flash of light seen in South Florida was likely an asteroid

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — The flash of light seen by many in South Florida Monday night was likely a chunk of an asteroid known as 2021 GW4.

According to CBS12 News meteorologist Zach Covey, the asteroid was scheduled to make an "extremely close approach" of just 16,000 miles.

The asteroid is roughly the size of a car, about 14 feet.

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"To put this in perspective, most close-approach asteroids are between 1 and 3 millions miles from earth. Earth's atmosphere runs roughly 6,200 miles up," Covey said. "It’s possible that this asteroid survived a brush by and didn’t break up upon close entry."