STAR-STRUCK
Extraordinary moment ‘fireball’ spotted blasting through the sky hours after surprise asteroid warning
Asteroids are often confused with meteors and comets - however, all three are distinct from one another
A SMALL asteroid due to collide with Earth yesterday burnt up in the atmosphere and gave onlookers in the Philippines a dazzling display.
The 3ft space rock is the ninth asteroid to ever be spotted from Earth before impact, according to the European Space Agency.
2
2
Asteroids a few feet in diameter strike fairly often but are rarely detected.
The asteroid plummeted towards Luzon Island in the Philippines and in a split-second made a pitch-black sky look as though it was daylight.
Observers recorded the flash as it streaked through the atmosphere, which appears green in some clips.
Surprisingly, cloud cover from Typhoon Yagi did not occlude it from sight.
READ MORE ON SPACE
The space rock, dubbed asteroid 2024 RW1, was expected to enter the atmosphere at roughly 11 miles per second, or just under 40,000 miles per hour.
Nasa's Planetary Defence Coordination Office said the 'harmless' impact was detected by multiple sensors.
The ability to detect oncoming space rocks, and ones that may cause damage to Earth, has become a focal point for Nasa and other space agencies.
In 2022, Nasa's DART mission demonstrated how Earth might protect itself from colliding asteroids by crashing an impactor into the space rock to alter its trajectory.
Most read in Science
Asteroids are chunks of rock, ice, and metal that orbit the Sun.
A large swathe of asteroids, containing millions of space rocks, lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroids are often confused with meteors and comets - however, all three are distinct from one another.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vaporizing)
A space station view
It comes just a day after Nasa astronaut Matthew Dominick captured a massive bolide flash above Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).
Dominick, who has been stationed on the ISS since March, posted a video of the epic sight on social media platform X.
ISS astronaut captures mysterious 'exploding' flash in space and people think it's 'something reentering the atmosphere'
He sought advice from friends who say the blast was a meteor burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
"I showed this to a couple of friends yesterday to see what they thought," he wrote on X.
"They both thought it was a meteor exploding in the atmosphere - a rather bright one called a bolide.
"Timelapse is slowed down to one frame per second for you to see it streaking and then exploding."
Dominick had set up a timelapse on his camera over Northern Africa, which was very dark and experiencing lightning storms at the time.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
A bolide, also known as fireballs, is an astronomical term for exceptionally bright meteors that can be seen over a very wide area.
"I think it is interesting to compare the size of the bolide blast to other objects in view like the Mediterranean, Cairo, or lightning strikes," added Dominick.