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Space
Space
Science
Brett Tingley

Tiny asteroid burns up over Philippines. 'Discovered this morning,' ESA says

ESA Earth Philippines NASA the European Space Agency X (Organization)
Planet earth with a bright white dot beside it labeled "2024 RW 1".

A small asteroid on a collision course with Earth today burned up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere.

The European Space Agency (ESA) says a 3-foot (1-meter) asteroid struck the atmosphere and burned up harmlessly on Wednesday (Sept. 4) around 12:46 p.m. ET (1646 GMT) above the western Pacific Ocean near Luzon Island in the Philippines. 

The asteroid, known as 2024 RW1, was discovered today by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas with the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded observatory near Tucson, Arizona dedicated to tracking and cataloging near-Earth objects. It was only the ninth asteroid that has been spotted prior to impact, ESA wrote in a post on X . 

NASA's Asteroid Watch website predicted that the impact could create a fireball visible from the east coast of the Philippines, and many videos posted to social media showed a bright green fireball above the island nation.

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office said the impact was detected by multiple sensors.

Images of 2024 RW1, a 3-foot (1-meter) asteroid discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on Sept. 4, 2024. (Image credit: Catalina Sky Survey)
RELATED STORIES:

 —  What are asteroids?

 — UAE on track to launch bold 7-asteroid mission in 2028

 — Shelved NASA spacecraft could spy on asteroid Apophis before 2029 Earth flyby

Planetary defense, which involves searching for near-Earth asteroids such as 2024 RW1 and cataloging them for tracking, has become a major priority for space agencies worldwide. In 2022, NASA's DART mission crashed an impactor into a double asteroid system in an attempt to change its trajectory.

NASA is also planning a new infrared telescope known as NEO Surveyor, and China is developing its own mission to deflect an asteroid by 2030.

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