By Jenny Huntington
19:25, October 7th 2008

Spotted: a small asteroid headed for Earth on early Tuesday morning.

One day before, Harvard scientists had informed that the 2008 TC3 asteroid would burn up and give rise to a fireball in the sky, which was to be seen by people living in North Africa, since they expected it to enter Earth’s atmosphere just at the crack of dawn. Moreover, they added that it was not in least a threat to the region, due to the fact that its size would render it incapable of hitting the ground before burning up.

Manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program Donald Yeomans has stated that for the first time, they had been able to predict an impactor beforehand, also reckoning that the fireball would be quite the treat for residents of the North African area.

The aforementioned program tracks both asteroids and comets that come within close range of the Earth’s atmosphere. Presently, 5,681 objects of the like have been reported, of which an approximate number of 757 are said to be prone to cause damage if hitting the Earth.

The 2008 TC3 asteroid was been spotted this Sunday by an Arizona telescope, scientists estimating that it measured between 3 feet and 15 feet in diameter, which excluded it from the category of possible harmful objects.

Astronomers from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center have informed that their efforts to scan the sky are aimed at eventually rendering them able to warn in due time of rocks that could do damage to the planet, thus making it possible to prevent undesired events from occuring.

They warned of Tuesday’s asteroid only six hours before the latter was expected to hit the ground, because the object had been too small and too dark to be observed any sooner.

Source:
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Small_Asteroid_Enters_Earths_Atmosphere_26024 .html

I for one am glad that this one is a small one.

Yea, but if it was a big one they would have seen it sooner. The only reason they caught it six hours before it entered our atmosphere was because it was so small.

Wikipedia says it hit with a force of 1 to 2 kilotons. Considering that is 2 to 4 times larger than this-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTwFsO1UvE&feature=related

I would hardly call that harmless.

wait, is that the same kind of explosive yield?

by that i mean, is the force of the asteroid like that of a 1-2 kiloton object hitting the earth, or the explosion of a 1-2kiloton warhead? they are very different things


and even if it were the same, a warhead projects its force outwards, a meteor pushes it against the earth. though if it hit some dude's car, it would still ruin his day

This asteroid wouldn't hit with the same kind of force as the warhead, but when an asteroid does hit, it doesn't just go straight to the ground. The initial explosion and vapourization of Earth material + all surroundings can be hugely catastrophic, destroying large areas (Tunguska, anyone, or Devil`s Tail. Even after the initial impact, there are heat and shock waves. The shock waves can be particularly devastating, asteroid-size depending.

The point is the force of impact doesn`t just create a crater, it is distributed to the atmosphere as well, creating rings of destruction progressing outward from the point of impact.

Luckily, this one was small.

And just because it was small is not the only reason it took so long to catch. The difference between a 3-15m object in space and a 75-100m object really isn`t that much, and it is hard to spot ANY object coming at Earth, because there are myriad paths of approach, most of which are not watched. That 75-100m object could level cities, not to mention atmosphere and biosphere effects.

The question isn`t whether it will happen, but when. Nothing about us or Earth shields us from these catastrophic impacts, and we know they`ve happened before. Hoping we`re special won`t make it not happen again.

When it hit Earths Atmosphere is became a Meteoroid.

i thought
meteoroid - in space
meteor - in the atmosphere
meteorite - in the ground

i thought
meteoroid - in space
meteor - in the atmosphere
meteorite - in the ground

Yeah meteor.