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A roughly 1-meter (3-foot) asteroid will strike Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island in a few hours at 12:46 p.m. ET (4:46 p.m. UTC), according to the European Space Agency.
The Catalina Sky Survey discovered the object, called CAQTDL2, this morning. Asteroids around 1 meter in size are estimated to hit Earth about every two weeks, according to the space agency, though they are very rarely spotted before striking Earth.
“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” ESA tweeted.
The object is harmless as it is small enough to burn up in the atmosphere upon entry. People in the area may see a spectacular fireball. However, cloud cover from nearby Typhoon Yagi could make fireball observations difficult.
Typhoon Yagi impacted the northern Philippines as a tropical storm over the past few days and is now equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, located about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Luzon, Philippines.
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