Small asteroid burns up over Luzon

A little asteroid hit the Earth's atmosphere early Thursday morning, producing a fireball that was seen in the skies over Luzon. 

Netizens in Cagayan Province posted videos of the celestial event, which occurred at 12:39 a.m. 

The asteroid, 2024 RW1, was only detected hours before it struck Earth. 

“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” the European Space Agency said. 

The ESA also said the asteroid, around one meter in size, was ''harmless."

Mario Raymundo, chief of PAGASA astronomical publication and planetarium unit, told ''Balitanghali'' that small asteroids broke apart due to air friction.

''Kung sakali naman po may naka-survive na fragmentation at nakuha po ng ating mga kababayan, ito po ay tinatawag nating meteorite which I doubt kasi ang tingin ko po, kung mayroong naka-survive maaari pong sa dagat bumagsak,'' Raymundo said.  

(We refer to fragments that our countrymen may have picked up as meteorites, which I doubt since they would probably fall to the sea.)

In March 2011, a meteorite was discovered in Orconuma, Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro.

The Orconuma meteorite, weighing 7.8 kilograms, was found in a field by three farmers, who stored the specimen for nine years.

A portion of the meteorite, one of the seven space rocks discovered in the Philippines, was turned over to the National Museum in 2022. — VBL, GMA Integrated News