Small asteroid hits Earth hours after discovery – videos show fireball

The asteroid 2024 RW1 hits the Earth’s atmosphere – just a few hours after its discovery. This makes the small celestial body something special.

Luzon – Anyone who was on Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, on Wednesday (September 4th) was able to witness a rare cosmic spectacle live: a small asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. Numerous video recordings show how the asteroid suddenly lit up the dark night sky as bright as day as it attacked the atmosphere. Seconds later, the spook was over again – as if it had never happened.

The asteroid seen in the images is called 2024 RW1. It was discovered just a few hours before it hit Earth by the Catalina Sky Survey, a telescope system operated by the US space agency NASA. As the European Space Agency Esa writes on X, this is only the ninth time that “humanity has discovered an asteroid before it impacted.”

Small asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere – fireball lights up the night

2024 RW1 was about one meter in size and hit the Earth’s atmosphere at around 6:46 p.m. (CEST). This impact was predicted by several experts – the precautionary measures ensure that so many videos of the fireball warning exist. In the Philippines, it was actually already well after midnight when the asteroid hit the Earth.

As NASA Asteroid Watch announced on X, 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” has become important – as shown by asteroid 2024 RW1

Since the asteroid that exploded in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, the topic of “planetary defense” has fallen far down the agenda of space organizations. Automated telescope systems explore the sky and look for asteroids that come dangerously close to Earth. But if asteroids move in the daytime sky, they cannot be detected by Earth – just like what happened in Chelyabinsk. A planned NASA space telescope is intended to remedy the situation.

The US space agency has also already tested in space how a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with the Earth could be “pushed” out of its trajectory – the “Dart” mission was a complete success. The ESA mission “Hera” is scheduled to set off to the asteroid that was pushed out of its orbit by “Dart” in autumn 2024 and collect further data. Something is happening in the area of ​​”planetary defense” – and this also applies to small and harmless asteroids like 2024 RW1. (Tab)