Something truly incredible happened in the sky of the Philippines leaving everyone speechless. What are we talking about? an asteroid which shortly after being detected then burned out giving rise to a bright flash on theisland of Luzon. This small asteroid was detected by NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey a few hours before it could reach Earth’s atmosphere. The asteroid in question was about a meter in diameter and, due to its size, did not represent any threat.
In the last few hours someone seems to have said that the asteroid “hit the Earth“. But in reality it is so, in fact it only hit the atmosphere where such small objects tend to burn up without particular problems. The images recorded from the northern tip of the Philippines have allowed us to observe a flashing fireball and in some parts also obscured by the presence of clouds. The asteroid managed to create a tail which however disappeared in a very short time.
Philippines Caught by Surprise by Asteroid
This is not the first time but the ninth that an asteroid is detected before reaching Earth. Although the European Space Agency itself seems to have revealed that every two weeks or so the Earth is hit by an asteroid about a meter in size. Automatic surveys have allowed us to detect in the sky the presence of an object of small dimensions that on the contrary, if it had been larger enough to even cause damage, would have certainly been brighter. And consequently detecting it would have been easier.
It should be noted that small-sized asteroids like the one spotted in the skies of the Philippines are not usually dangerous. But unfortunately this is not always the case. In 2013, in fact, an 18-ton asteroid near Earth exploded over a Russian city causing damage to the ground and at the same time several injuries for which medical assistance was required.
