Asteroid hits Earth just hours after discovery – videos show bright fireball

The asteroid 2024 RW1 hits the Earth and causes a fireball in the sky. An event that was captured on video thanks to advance warning.

Luzon – The chances of seeing an asteroid enter the Earth’s atmosphere with your own eyes are getting higher and higher. But that’s not because more asteroids are hitting Earth, but because of a field called “planetary defense.” It’s getting better and better and has once again managed to detect and correctly predict an asteroid shortly before it hits Earth.

Asteroid 2024 RW1 creates a fireball that makes the sky as bright as day

The spectacular celestial spectacle caused by the asteroid named 2024 RW1 was visible on September 4th on Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. The small asteroid, with a diameter of about one meter, entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up, which can be seen in numerous video recordings. The dark night sky was suddenly lit up as bright as day as the asteroid entered the atmosphere. Just a few seconds later, the spectacle was over, as if nothing had happened.

Asteroid 2024 RW1 was only discovered shortly before its impact

Just a few hours before the spectacular astronomical event, the asteroid 2024 RW1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey, a telescope system of the US space agency NASA. According to the European Space Agency ESA on X, it is only the ninth time “that humanity has discovered an asteroid before it impacted.” The asteroid hit the Earth’s atmosphere at around 6:46 p.m. (CEST) – in the Philippines it was already well after midnight at this time.

According to NASA Asteroid Watch, the asteroid impact was measured by several sensors on Earth. It released an energy equivalent of 0.2 kilotons of TNT. For comparison: The asteroid that exploded over the Russian Urals in February 2013 released an energy equivalent of 440 kilotons of TNT.

“Planetary defense” and asteroid defense have high priority

Since the asteroid impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, the issue of “planetary defense” has been a high priority for space agencies. Automated telescope systems scan the sky for asteroids that could come dangerously close to Earth. However, these systems cannot detect asteroids that move in the daytime sky – just like was the case in Chelyabinsk. A planned NASA space telescope is intended to remedy this in the future.

The US space agency has already tested in space how a dangerous asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth could be “pushed” out of its trajectory. The “Dart” mission was a complete success. The ESA mission “Hera” is scheduled to head to the asteroid that was pushed out of its orbit by “Dart” in autumn 2024 to collect further data. There is also progress in the field of “planetary defense”, and this also applies to small and harmless asteroids such as 2024 RW1. (Tab)