Asteroid burns up in Earth's atmosphere over Philippines

Srinagar, Sep 05: In the history of humankind, only eight asteroids were spotted, until yesterday, when the ninth, roughly 1-metre (3-foot) asteroid was seen burned up in Earth's atmosphere.

The asteroid was seen over the Philippines near Luzon Island early Wednesday afternoon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said the impact occurred at 12:39 p.m ET, reported CNN.

This screen grab taken from a video shows an asteroid burning up in the night sky as witnessed from Gonzaga in Cagayan province, Philippines, on September 4. Allan Madelar/Facebook

The object, called CAQTDL2 initially but now named as 2024 RW1 was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey.

Asteroids around 1 meter in size are estimated to hit Earth about every two weeks, according to the space agency, though they are very rarely spotted before making impact with the planet.

“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” ESA tweeted.

The object was harmless as it was small enough to burn up in the atmosphere upon entry.

Sky-gazers in the area posted video on social media that captured a spectacular fireball.