A small asteroid has burned up in Earth's atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island early on Wednesday afternoon, according to NASA.
The asteroid — about 1 metre across — was first spotted by astronomers in Arizona and disintegrated several hours later over the coast of the Philippines.
The space rock, dubbed 2024 RW1, is only the ninth asteroid that has been spotted prior to impact, the European Space Agency wrote in a post on X.
[tweet]Asteroids of this size hurtle towards Earth about every two weeks without posing any danger.
2024 RW1 was discovered through the Catalina Sky Survey, which is run by the University of Arizona and funded by NASA.
NASA's Asteroid Watch website had predicted that the impact could produce a "fireball" visible from the east coast of the Philippines, prompting many to post pictures on social media.
[media]A video shared on social media shows a flickering green fireball appear behind the clouds, followed by an orange tail, which disappears just seconds later.
[tweet]NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office reported that multiple sensors detected the asteroid's safe impact.
ABC
