An asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere today. The reason you’re not seeing news about it on the front pages of every website on Earth in 72-point font is that it was a teeny tiny asteroid that posed no threat to life on our fragile planet. However, one small aspect of the story is a bit concerning.
A wittle baby asteroid named 2024 RW1 barreled through the atmosphere today. Thankfully, it was only 3 feet in diameter and burned up over the western Pacific Ocean near Luzon Island in the Philippines. Anyone in the Philippines today who was pelted with a pebble when there was no one around has only the mysterious machinations of outer space to blame.
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The European Space Agency predicted that 2024 RW1 was going to enter the Earth’s atmosphere and harmlessly burn up at around 12:46 PM EST. The fact that you’re reading this when you are means nothing happened, and the collective governments of the world did not have to send oil drillers onto its surface to neutralize it before it killed us all.
So that’s the good news. The small concerning part is that the asteroid was not discovered until earlier this morning by researchers at the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded project based out of the University of Arizona. We only knew about the asteroid’s existence mere hours before it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. This is concerning because 2024 RW1 is only the ninth asteroid we’ve ever been able to detect before it impacted the Earth, according to the ESA.
Or maybe it’s not concerning at all because, apparently, asteroids of this size striking the Earth happens much more frequently than you would imagine. Like, around once every two weeks. You can only assume that they’d see an asteroid the size of Texas coming from a mile away. Preferably a little bit further than a mile, but you get what I mean.
