Watch: Asteroid hits Earth hours after being detected, fireball seen over Philippines

A small asteroid collided with Earth on Wednesday and burnt up over the Philippines. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that the asteroid was 3-foot (1-metre) long and struck the atmosphere around 12:46 p.m. ET on September 4 above the western Pacific Ocean near Luzon Island.

Named 2024 RW1, the steroid was discovered by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas with the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, just hours before it collided. It is a NASA-funded observatory near Tucson, Arizona and tracks and catalogues near-Earth objects. ESA informed in an X post that the asteroid was only the ninth to have been spotted prior to impact.

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NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office reported the strike on its X account. It also informed that the impact was detected by multiple sensors.

The asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, creating a green fireball. Several people who caught the event recorded videos and posted them on social media.

Videos of asteroid in the Philippines

Spotting asteroids

Space agencies around the world have lately been undertaking dedicated efforts to search for near-Earth objects. The Double Asteroids Redirect Test (DART) is the most famous mission whereby NASA conducted an impact on Dimorphos, a moonlet of the larger asteroid Didymos.

The experiment aimed to understand how potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) could be deflected if they posed a threat to our planet. The impact sent several pieces of debris flying in space and now scientists say, some of them can reach Earth. Simulations carried out as part of a study state that the asteroid ejecta could reach Mars and the Earth-Moon system within a decade.

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Apophis in 2029

The world is also preparing to meet Apophis, the "god of chaos" asteroid in 2029. It will come dangerously close to Earth but will not cause any harm. As per current observations, the asteroid will safely pass by Earth, posing no threat in 2029, 2036 and 2068.

However, according to a new study, the asteroid still holds a chance of striking us provided another space rock collides with it, changing its trajectory.

Canadian astronomer Paul Wiegert found that an object around 0.6 metres (2 feet) in size can change the asteroid's path. This would set it up for a later collision with our planet. However, an impact in 2029 becomes likely if Apophis collides with an object of around 3.4 metres (11.2 feet).

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is creating the asteroid-hunting spacecraft called NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor), which will hunt for asteroids and comets travelling towards Earth. China is also developing its own mission to deflect an asteroid by 2030.