An asteroid that impacted Earth over the Philippines today was spotted hours earlier by the European Space Agency.
“Discovered this morning by the Catalina Sky Survey, this is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” said the ESA, on its X account.
The space agency said there was no safety issue. The meteor’s size has been estimated at about 1.5 metres in diameter.
“The object is harmless, but people in the area may see a spectacular fireball!” said the space agency, in the post just hours before impact.
The ESA managed to give a heads up, hours before it struck — just before 1:00 p.m., Toronto time.
And in fact, a follower on their X account posted a nine-second video of the bright object lighting up a cloudy sky. The ESA, in its pre-impact post, predicted where it would hit.
“Thanks to new observatories, we now have a very good idea of where it will impact,” stated the ESA, adding that it will “strike Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island.”
It had warned, however, that “the nearby tropical storm Yagi/Enteng will make fireball observations difficult.”
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