With all of humanity's telescoping eyes trained on the sky, it's rare for an asteroid to surprise us. But that's exactly what happened on the morning of September 5 in the skies over the Philippines. Just hours after it was detected, the asteroid burned up in a bright flash over the island of Luzon, Science Alert reported.
NASA's Catalina Sky Probe spotted the small asteroid, now named 2024 RW1, just hours before it reached Earth's atmosphere. It was only 1 meter in diameter and posed no threat. Although reports say it "hit Earth" it actually only hit Earth's atmosphere, where such small objects burn up.
A video taken from the northern tip of the Philippines showed a glowing fireball partially obscured by clouds. The asteroid briefly formed a tail, which quickly disappeared.
This is only the ninth time we have detected an asteroid before it reaches Earth, although the European Space Agency (ESA) claims that one-metre-long asteroids hit Earth every two weeks.
It's an unusual feeling to be surprised by an asteroid. But as surprising as it was, the asteroid was intercepted before it reached us. We can rest easy that our automatic sky survey found such a small object. If it was big enough to cause any damage, it would have been brighter and we would have detected it much earlier.
While this asteroid wasn't a threat, that's not always the case. In 2013, an 18-ton near-Earth asteroid known as the Chelyabinsk Meteor exploded over the Russian city. It caused significant damage to the ground and caused 1,500 people to seek medical attention, but no one was killed.
Earth has fallen victim to far more catastrophic impacts than this in its history, and this specter haunts our civilization. The Chicxulub impact caused a mass extinction and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Vredefort crater in South Africa was excavated 2 million years ago by an asteroid between 10 and 15 km in diameter.
But it's not just the size of meteorites that's a problem. They hit the Earth at high speed. ESA claims that 2024 RW1 flew at a speed of 17.6 km/s or 63.360 km/h, which is the average speed for such objects.
Both NASA and ESA are actively searching for and cataloging the asteroid population. NASA also invites experts to participate in regular test exercises. During these exercises, teams of people receive regular fictional updates about the approach of a dangerous asteroid and are asked to take such actions as they see fit.
2024 RW1 was not a threat. It was actually a beautiful, natural spectacle.
But it's also a reminder that the Earth is not isolated from the Cosmos, even though it may seem that way to us in everyday life. | BGNES
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