Predicted trajectory of asteroid CAQTDL2 over the Philippines
Catalina Sky Survey/ESA
The asteroid struck Earth and burned up in the atmosphere east of the Philippines. Astronomers spotted it just hours before it streaked across the sky in a bright fireball, but many on the ground couldn’t see it because of cloudy skies caused by Typhoon Enteng.
The asteroid, estimated to be about one meter in diameter, was discovered early today by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey and was initially given the designation CAQTDL2, and later renamed 2024 RW1.
As expected, the asteroid struck the eastern side of the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago at about 16:45 GMT, which is 17:45 London time, 12:45 New York time, and 00:45 local time. It was predicted to hit at a speed of 17.6 kilometers per second, or 63,360 kilometers per hour, which Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen’s University in Belfast, UK, says is average for such an object. “In Hollywood movies, you see the asteroid screaming through the sky and you have time to run out the house, grab your cat, jump in the car and drive somewhere, but you don’t,” he says.
Asteroid CAQTDL2 can be seen moving across the sky in a purple circle.
Catalina Sky Survey
Luckily, no evacuations were necessary: NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office posted on social media that the asteroid “safely impacted Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Something that small wouldn’t do any damage on the ground because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks that,” Fitzsimmons said. Video shared on social media from Cagayan province in the northern tip of the Philippines shows a flickering green fireball appearing behind a cloud, followed by an orange tail, before disappearing a few seconds later.
☄️? Wow! The newly discovered 1-1.5m diameter asteroid 2024 RW1 (discovered by US near-Earth asteroid hunters) burned up over the Philippines just hours after it was first sighted.
This asteroid was not a danger, but if it had been, it could have been a warning to hunker down and take cover. pic.twitter.com/Fht4yqRsBP
— Dr. Robin George Andrews ☄️ (@SquigglyVolcano) September 4, 2024
Fitzsimmons said two to three objects this size hit Earth every year, and early detection is becoming more common – astronomers detected the first near-Earth asteroid before it fell to Earth in 2008. 2024 RW1 will be the ninth asteroid to be accurately predicted to hit Earth.
“The really good thing about this is that our survey telescopes are now good enough to detect these objects as they approach and to provide a warning,” he says. “In other words, if this object was bigger and potentially threatening to people on the ground, it would have appeared brighter and projected farther. So this is a really cool demonstration that our current survey systems work really well. Right now, we’re probably averaging about one asteroid per year that gets detected before it hits the atmosphere, and survey systems are getting better and better.”
Not only is Earth developing and improving its early warning systems, but in 2022 NASA’s Dual Asteroid Reorientation Test (DART) spacecraft proved it could potentially save Earth from a catastrophic impact with a larger object. DART struck the 160-meter-wide moonlet Dimorphos, slowing it slightly, demonstrating that in theory such a disaster could be averted. Next month, the European Space Agency will launch the Hera mission to study the consequences of the impact in detail and further our understanding of planetary defense.
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