Small Asteroid atmospheric impact

From: Walter Ridgewell (wridgew1@memlane.com)
Date: Mon Oct 06 2008 - 21:24:02 UTC

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    Slightly off topic post here, but I suspect that some folks will see this
    and the often posted queries of "what was that?"  Might appear, so to save
    folks from digging thru probable re-entry data. 
    
    There is ephemeris data on the web for those who might want to try spotting
    this optically pre-impact  at  
    
    http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2008 TC3;orb=1
    
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    Small Asteroid Predicted to Cause Brilliant Fireball over Northern Sudan 
    Don Yeomans
    NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
    October 6, 2008 
    A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found
    Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson
    Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center
    suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL
    confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early
    morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT
    Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to
    east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity
    of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local
    horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage
    through the Earth's atmosphere. 
    Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every
    few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been
    predicted ahead of time. 
    
    
    
    Walter Ridgewell,   C.I.T.P *
    *Canadian Information Technology Professional
    
    
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