Space
News of the asteroid 2024 RW1 impacting near the Philippines may have come as a shock this week, but space agencies and astronomers around the world are keeping an eye out to protect us
By Matthew Sparkes
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Asteroid 2024 RW1 seen over the Philippines
Allan Madelar/Facebook
The surprise discovery of asteroid 2024 RW1, mere hours before it hit Earth harmlessly this week, may have you wondering whether we are at risk of larger space rocks coming out of nowhere and wreaking devastation. Thankfully, our ability to track asteroids is on the rise, even if we can’t catch them all.
“We believe we know more than 90 per cent of the asteroids that are about one kilometre in size, where one kilometre is considered, not a planet killer, but something that would destroy a whole region or a whole continent,” says Ian Carnelli at…
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