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1. Boulder-Size Asteroid to Be Fireball Over Earth Tonight
From: Richard M. Mathews
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________________________________________________________________________
1. Boulder-Size Asteroid to Be Fireball Over Earth Tonight
Posted by: "Richard M. Mathews" richard@alumni.caltech.edu richardmathews
Date: Mon Oct 6, 2008 5:12 pm ((PDT))
Boulder-Size Asteroid to Be Fireball Over Earth Tonight
Victoria Jaggard
National Geographic News <http://news.nationalgeographic.com>
October 6, 2008
A boulder-size asteroid
<http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/asteroids-comets-article.html>
discovered just a few hours ago will become a bright fireball when it
enters Earth's atmosphere at about 10:46 eastern time tonight,
astronomers announced.
The space rock---which is believed to be between 3 and 15 feet (1 and 5
meters) wide---is not a threat, as it will completely disintegrate
before it reaches the ground, the scientists say.
The fiery meteor will likely be visible for a few seconds only to people
in eastern Africa, traveling west to east at about 7.9 miles (12.8
kilometers) a second in the pre-dawn skies over Sudan
<http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_sudan.html>.
But depending on its angle of entry, skywatchers in Europe might be able
to see it, noted Tim Spahr, director of the International Astronomical
Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"Amateur astronomers are observing it [as it approaches] right now,"
Spahr said.
Fireballs this size are fairly common, he added, appearing on average
once every few months.
But this is the first time astronomers have been warned of an asteroid
approaching this close to Earth.
The space rock, dubbed 2008 TC3, was first spotted this morning by the
Catalina Sky Survey observatory in Tucson, Arizona.
The Minor Planet Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California
later both confirmed the high probability of atmospheric entry.
The NASA-funded Catalina program was designed to survey, catalog, and
assess the nature of so-called near-Earth objects as part of a program
to detect and deflect any that might threaten the planet.
"If the object was ten times the size [as the one detected today], we
would have picked it up several days in advance," Spahr said.
"Then we could say, OK, you guys in Africa, pick up and move 50 miles
[80 kilometers]."
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