The Incident

A small asteroid, about 1 meter (3 feet) wide, burned up in Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island on Wednesday afternoon, NASA reported. According to the European Space Agency, the event occurred at 12:39 p.m. ET (4:39 p.m. UTC).A video from Gonzaga in Cagayan province shows it’s lighting up the night sky. The object, first called CAQTDL2, is now named 2024 RW1 and was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey earlier that day. NASA says this size of things hit Earth every two weeks, but they are rarely seen before impact.

Recognizing the Risk

Asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) pose potential dangers to Earth, but assessing these threats is a complicated process. Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA), specifically at their NEO Coordination Centre in Italy, work to evaluate the risks posed by these objects. They look at several factors like an it’s path, size, mass, and what it’s made of.

Some asteroids are extremely large. If one of these struck Earth, it would cause massive destruction. However, these large comets are rare, and over 90% of them have already been discovered. None of the known large things pose a threat to Earth.

On the other hand, there are many small comets, those less than 10 meters in diameter. These are far more common, but only a small number of them have been found. Even if a small asteroid hit Earth, the impact would likely be harmless due to its size.

The main concern comes from medium-sized stones, which range from tens to hundreds of meters in size. There are a lot of these comets, and most have not yet been discovered. If one of these were to hit Earth, it could cause significant damage to a city or populated area. The good news is that if they are spotted early enough, scientists can predict where they will hit with reasonable accuracy. This gives time to take action to protect people and property.

At present, there are no known asteroids that pose a real danger. However, many remain undiscovered, so the search must continue.

What is An Asteroid?

It’s an ancient space rocks that have been around since the Solar System was formed. Some scientists believe that these rocks might have brought complex molecules and possibly even early life to Earth billions of years ago.

Known Asteroid

One of the most well-known is the Chicxulub asteroid. Even if you haven’t heard its name, you’ve probably heard of what it did. About 66 million years ago, this asteroid hit Earth and caused a mass extinction. This event wiped out most non-flying dinosaurs and many other species.

Fact

While impacts from large asteroids are very rare, smaller and medium-sized asteroids are much more common. These rocks can still cause a lot of damage. Some asteroids reach the ground, but others break apart in Earth’s atmosphere. A little asteroid exploded in the sky over Russia in 2013 Chelyabinsk catastrophe serves as a representation of this. The explosion caused shockwaves that shattered windows, damaged buildings, and injured people.

What is NEO?

Any natural object that approach Earth in its orbit—such as an comet, meteors —is termed to as a “near-Earth object” (NEO). By March 2019, scientists had discovered more than 600,000 asteroids in our Solar System. Out of these, around 20,000 are classified as near-Earth objects. About 800 of these are on the European Space Agency’s risk list, meaning they require close observation to ensure they don’t pose a threat to Earth.

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