A bright meteor lit up the sky over the Philippines

A small and bright meteor lit up the sky over the northern Philippines early today, the European Space Agency and eyewitnesses said.

The one-meter space rock, dubbed 2024 RW1, collided with Earth's atmosphere shortly after midnight, causing a "harmless" but "spectacular fireball" over the Philippine island of Luzon.

The meteor is only the ninth that humans have ever spotted before the actual collision.

Businessman Alan Madelar, 28, told AFP he waited for an hour in Gonzaga, a municipality in Luzon, to watch the meteor with a friend.

“It was mesmerizing, the color was beautiful. The sky went from black to blue-green to orange to black again,” he said.

Videos posted on Facebook showed a fireball with an orange tail briefly lighting up the sky over Luzon. | BGNES