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Asteroid strikes Earth's atmosphere, burns up in fireball over Philippines. Watch
The asteroid known as the 2024 RW1 was discovered by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas with NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey
A small asteroid headed for Earth burned up in the atmosphere on Wednesday without causing any harm. The 3-foot space rock entered the Earth's atmosphere over the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago at around 12:46 pm ET (1646 GMT). It hit at an expected speed of 17.6 kilometres per second, or 63,360 kilometres per hour, before creating a “spectacular fireball” that lit up the sky.
Asteroid hits Earth's atmosphere, burns up over Philippines
The asteroid known as the 2024 RW1 was discovered by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas with Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded observatory near Tucson, Arizona. The European Space Agency said in an X post prior to the asteroid strike that “the object is harmless, but people in the area may see a spectacular fireball!”
Alan Fitzsimmons at Queen’s University Belfast said of the asteroid's size, “Don’t be fooled by Hollywood movies where you can see the thing coming screaming through the sky and you’ve got time to run out the house, get the cat, jump in the car and drive somewhere. You don’t have the time to do that,” per New Scientist.
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Shortly after the asteroid burned up in a fireball, those who witnessed it shared photos of a lit-up sky on social media. An X, formerly Twitter user shared a video of the asteroid forming a fireball before disappearing at ground level. “𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛, 𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗗 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗥𝗪𝟭! Here's a clear shot of the much-awaited small asteroid 2024 RW1 (#CAQTDL2) burning bright into a greenish 'fireball' over Lal-lo, Cagayan around 12:39 AM PhST, 05 September 2024. Did you see it too?” wrote the user.
