2008 TC3
2008 TC3 was a meteoroid approximately two to four meters in diameter that impacted the Earth at 2008-10-07 02:46 UTC.[1] It was first observed about a day before the impact.
The meteoroid is believed to have impacted in northern Sudan, at a velocity of 12.8 kilometers per second, and probably exploded tens of kilometers in the air with an energy of around a kiloton.
The trajectory showed intersection with Earth's surface at roughly 33.5 degrees east, 20.5 degrees north, though the object was expected to break up perhaps 1-200 kilometers west as it descended, somewhat east of the Nile river, and about 100 kilometers south of the Egypt/Sudan border.[2]
The meteoroid was notable as the first earth-impacting asteroid spotted and tracked prior to impact.
Links
- Remanzacco Observatory photographs of the incoming space rock
- Animation of impact from the asteroid's point of view (Pasquale Tricarico of the Planetary Science Institute)
