There was a small rock that hit Earth’s atmosphere Wednesday afternoon over the Philippines and caught fire.
None of the people or buildings were hurt by it.
It was found early Wednesday morning by the European Space Agency. At 12:46 p.m. EDT, it was scheduled to hit the atmosphere over the western Pacific Ocean, close to the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
The asteroid, which was about 3 feet across, wasn’t found until Wednesday morning. It is the ninth asteroid to be found before it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the ESA said in a post on X.
“The object is harmless, but people in the area may see a spectacular fireball!” the ESA told us.
As expected, the asteroid caused a “spectacular bright flash in the sky over the Philippines” a few hours after it was found, according to New Scientist.
The asteroid 2024 RW1 was found by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas as part of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey.
About eight hours before it burned up in the atmosphere, it was found.
The Catalina Sky Survey is based near Tucson, Arizona, and its job is to keep an eye on things that are close to Earth.
ESA officials said Wednesday’s find shows that the Catalina Sky Survey and other similar telescopes are getting better at finding asteroids, even small ones, before they hit Earth.