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A freshly find asteroid has converge a colored and spectacular end above the Philippines , explode in a bright unripened fireball that was visible for hundreds of stat mi . The space rock was only discovered earlier the same daytime , earning it a spot in an super exclusive club .
astronomer from the Catalina Sky Survey get a line the rough 3 - base - wide ( 1 metre ) space tilt , named2024 RW1 in the other hours of Wednesday ( Sept. 4 ) , theEuropean Space Agency(ESA ) said ina mail on the societal platform X. The Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA - fund project at the University of Arizona ’s Steward Observatory near Tucson , which glance over the sky for potentially wild near - Earth target .
Asteroid 2024 RW1 entered Earth’s atmosphere on Sept. 4 and burned up above the Philippines as a “fireball meteor” shortly after midnight local time.
ESA instance predicted that the " harmless " asteroid would wear out apart in the atmospheric state and that " people in the area may see a dramatic bolide [ meteor ] . " And that is exactly what happened .
The asteroid broke apart at around 12:46 p.m. ET ( 0:46 a.m. local metre Sept. 5 ) above the westerly Pacific Ocean near Luzon Island in the Philippines , Live Science ’s sister siteSpace.com describe .
The disintegrate space rock gave off a bright green brightness level — likely becauseit had a mellow magnesium message — before blow up with a bright flash that could be seen at least 250 miles ( 400 kilometre ) away , according to theAmerican Meteor Society . Due to scientist ' advance monition , some local people were able-bodied to enamor sensational photos andvideo footage of the rare event .
The meteor gave off bright green light as it began to burn up.(Image credit: Jomar M. via American Meteor Society)
touch on : How many meteorite hit Earth every year ?
Asteroids the size of 2024 RW1 come in Earth ’s standard pressure once every two calendar week on average , according toESA . However , astronomers seldom see them coming due to their lilliputian size of it .
This is only the 9th clip astronomers have spotted an asteroid before it hit our satellite .
The final flash of the explosion light up the night sky like the sun.(Image credit: Valiant Aniñon via X)
The last sentence this befall was on Jan. 21 , whenNASA scientists spotted a like - sizing infinite rock , named 2024 BX1 , around three hours before it entered the atmosphere andexploded above Berlin . This asteroid also made headlines becauseit was the fastest - spinning asteroid ever seen .
In 2022 , another fridge - size quad rock , name 2022 EB5 , wasspotted just two hours before it embark our atmosphereat almost 40,000 miles per hour ( 64,000 km / h ) , and eventually fell aside somewhere over the Arctic .
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The fireball was seen for hundreds of miles.(Image credit: Angelo Gabriel S. via American Meteor Society)
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Small fragments of fireball meteors often reach Earth ’s surface after being dissipate by the aerial detonation . In January , for example , scientist find fragment of the Berlin fireball and laterdetermined that it was a rare character of asteroid , have it off as an aubrite , which is potentially as old as thesolar system . However , it is very unlikely that any surviving fragment from 2024 RW1 will be find because they likely set down in the sea , based on the meteor ’s flight .
Astronomers from the Catalina Sky Survey first spotted 2024 RW1 from Arizona in the early hours of Sept. 4.
But astronomers should be able-bodied to retrace the asteroid ’s approach to Earth from the data collected after its discovery , which could reveal more clues about its origins .
