Extraordinary moment ‘fireball’ spotted blasting through the sky hours after surprise asteroid warning
A SMALL asteroid due to collide with Earth yesterday burnt up in the atmosphere and gave onlookers in the Philippines a dazzling display.
The 3ft space rock is the ninth asteroid to ever be spotted before impact, according to the European Space Agency.
Asteroids a few feet in diameter strike fairly often but are rarely detected.
Nasa's Planetary Defense Coordination Office said the 'harmless' impact was detected by multiple sensors.
The asteroid body plummeted towards Luzon Island in the Philippines and in a split-second made a pitch-black sky look as though it was daylight.
Observers recorded the flash as it streaked through the atmosphere, which appears green in some clips.
READ MORE ON SPACE
Surprisingly, cloud cover from Typhoon Yagi did not occlude it from sight.
The space rock, dubbed asteroid 2024 RW1, was expected to enter the atmosphere at roughly 11 miles per second, or just under 40,000 miles per hour.
Asteroids are chunks of rock, ice, and metal that orbit the Sun.
A large swathe of asteroids, containing millions of space rocks, lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroids are often confused with meteors and comets - however, all three are distinct from one another.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vaporizing)