'Harmless' meter-sized asteroid to strike over Luzon - ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Wednesday that a small asteroid will hit Earth's atmosphere over Luzon early Thursday morning, although it stressed that there will be no adverse impacts.

????UPDATE 2: We expect the ~1 m asteroid discovered this morning to strike Earth's atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island at 16:39 UTC today.

Thanks to new observations, we now have a very good idea of where it will impact.

And the object has a name! Welcome to Earth… https://t.co/C1lVUfP9Uu pic.twitter.com/agxS4tRuHm

— European Space Agency (@esa) September 4, 2024

The asteroid, which is around one meter in size, will probably enter the atmosphere at 16:39 UTC or 12:39 a.m. Thursday in the Philippines, the ESA said.

''The object is harmless,'' the ESA said on X (formerly Twitter). ''However the nearby tropical storm Yagi/Enteng will make fireball observations difficult.''

''Discovered this morning by the Catalina Sky Survey, this is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,'' it said.

According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), asteroids are ''rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system'' around 4.6 billion years ago.

''Most asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt. Asteroids range in size from Vesta—the largest at about 329 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter—to bodies that are less than 33 feet (10 meters) across. The total mass of all the asteroids combined is less than that of Earth's Moon,'' it said. — VBL, GMA Integrated News