Asteroid Explodes Over Sudan

radioweather writes "A recently discovered Apollo Asteroid, 2008 TC3, exploded over Sudan at about 1046 EDT on October 7, 2008, according to astronomer Tim Spahr of Harvard University 2008 TC3 was discovered on Monday by an observer at the Mt Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. 2008 TC3 is notable in that it is the first Asteroid of its size that was identified before impact and tracking it put the entire Spaceguard tracking system to an extreme test. TC3 is estimated to be only two to five meters in diameter but exploded with the force of a one kiloton of explosive power." We mentioned the asteroid last on Monday, when it was only at a 99.8 percent chance of colliding with Earth.

Comments

*poof* bye bye

[morrison]

We mentioned the asteroid last on Monday, when it was only at a 99.8 percent chance of colliding with Earth.

Mm.. so I suppose that means it now has a 0.0 percent chance of colliding with the Earth. Or is that number now 'NaN' since it doesn't exist anymore?

Re:99.8 chance of what?!

[Reziac]

All true... tho I suppose someone somewhere has run the numbers for the basic classes of "speed + direction + mass + velocity + composition + fudge factor" vs. "size of hole in ground, or velocity and vectors of remaining chunks of planet". ;)

I always wondered how that little chunk of iron wound up sitting on *top* of the grass, like it had been gently placed there... tho I've read that isn't too unusual with small meteorites.

Re:99.8 chance of what?!

[whathappenedtomonday]

This is not quite what you're looking for, but nice to play around with: Impact Effects Calculator.