Asteroid 2024 RW1 strikes above the Philippines, gives off cool views before “disintegrating”
[CC: Video of the asteroid descending from above (captured by: (Valiant Aniñon: from @ScienceKonek on X/Twitter)]
On September 4, 2024, at approximately 12:40 AM Philippine Time (PHT), Asteroid 2024 RW1 struck the Earth’s atmosphere above the Philippines. Amidst the presence of Typhoon Yagi in the country, the asteroid still didn’t fail to provide cool views to the people near the impact site, lighting up the night sky above them for a short time. People near the impact site captured the rare event such as this video above this text by (Valiant Aniñon: from @ScienceKonek on X/Twitter)
Observations show that this asteroid was roughly 1 meter in size, which made it harmless during its impact. The asteroid was discovered by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and ESA (European Space Agency) teams a day before impact. It was made possible by the Catalina Sky Survey, a program part of NASA’s Near-Earth Observations (NEO) Program. According to NASA and ESA teams, this was the 9th asteroid they ever spotted before impacting our planet.
Since the asteroid was relatively harmless to the ground below, it disintegrated before reaching the ground, providing a final explosion spectacle before it could even reach the ground. If some pieces of it may have survived, it will be too small for it to cause damage to the area around its impact site. Additionally, the asteroid was expected to disintegrate above the ocean near the coastline areas of the Philippines, thus, further lessening the chances of third-party damage.
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This is KYNNMASTER 123 for The Weekly Spaceman, see you in the next one! 😊
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