A newly spotted asteroid named 2024 RW1 burned up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific, creating a spectacular bright flash in the sky over the Philippines just hours after first being detected.
An asteroid hit Earth and burned up in the atmosphere just east of the Philippines. It was discovered by astronomers only hours before it streaked across the sky in a bright fireball, but went unseen by many on the ground as the view was obscured by cloudy weather produced by Typhoon Enteng.
As predicted, the asteroid struck Earth around 1645 GMT, or 1745 London time, 1245 New York time and 0045 local time just east of the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago. It was expected to hit at a speed of 17.6 kilometres per second, or 63,360 kilometres per hour, whichΒ Alan FitzsimmonsΒ at Queenβs University Belfast in the UK says is about average for such objects.
