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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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 Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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Readers of the SPA's Electronic News Bulletin No. 254 will have read the Meteor Section Director's comments regarding 2008 TC3...
| Quote: | | October 7 brought a world's first event - the predicted atmospheric entry of an asteroid! Asteroid 2008 TC3 was discovered on October 6 during routine searching as part of NASA's Catalina Sky Survey for near-Earth objects, by the Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona, USA. It was realised it would hit the Earth, but was small enough to ablate in the atmosphere and not strike the surface. It arrived close to its expected place and timing at around 02:46 UT on October 7 over Sudan in eastern Africa. |
The Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2008 November 08 shows an image of the twisted trail resulting from the atmospheric passage of the object.
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Cliff
Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 5436
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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Dear David
Thanks for pointing us at the asteroid trail pic.
It reminds me of my contortions when I annoyed my wife the other day.
Best wishes from Cliff |
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 8:58 am Post subject: |
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| Cliff wrote: | | It reminds me of my contortions when I annoyed my wife the other day. |
Thanks Cliff, I can see you now...
I've been trying to understand the picture - the predicted path was described by Don Yeoman of NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office as follows:
| Quote: | | ...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. |
[edited to correct my mistake in calculating the Sun's location at time of event]
From northern Sudan and looking generally south, the object would have traveled from right to left. By my calculation, at the time of the entry, the Sun would have been 15 degrees below the local horizon, being some 20 minutes after the start of morning twilight and approximately 1 hour before local sunrise. So, the picture was taken some time probably within 1 hour of the entry itself.
Can you imagine waking up and realizing what you'd missed? 
I perhaps should correct my original post to refer to a persistent train, rather than a trail. But I'm never too sure when discussing something that lasts so long.
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:02 pm Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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| Alastair McBeath wrote: | | October 7 brought a world's first event - the predicted atmospheric entry of an asteroid! Asteroid 2008 TC3 was discovered on October 6 during routine searching as part of NASA's Catalina Sky Survey for near-Earth objects, by the Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona, USA. It was realised it would hit the Earth, but was small enough to ablate in the atmosphere and not strike the surface. It arrived close to its expected place and timing at around 02:46 UT on October 7 over Sudan in eastern Africa. |
New Scientist are reporting that meteorites have been recovered from this event over Sudan. Thanks to Jeff Brower for the link.
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
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Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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| david entwistle wrote: | | New Scientist are reporting that meteorites have been recovered from this event over Sudan. Thanks to Jeff Brower for the link. |
NASA News Audio Live Streaming
[edited to confirm the correct time despite what the web site says DGE]
Time confirmed as 2 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, March 25
For UK listeners that's 2009 March 25 18:00 UT
Meteorites
NASA will hold a teleconference to discuss the findings from recently discovered meteorites, which originated from a small asteroid.
Participants are:
-Peter Jenniskens, meteor astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute in Moffett Field, Callif.
-Steve Chesley, scientist in NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
-Michael Zolensky, cosmic mineralogist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
-Lucy McFadden, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland in College Park
Thanks again to Jeff Brower for the information.
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Rosanella
Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 276
Location: London UK and mostly on Planet Rosanella
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:07 am Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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| david entwistle wrote: | | Alastair McBeath wrote: | | October 7 brought a world's first event - the predicted atmospheric entry of an asteroid! Asteroid 2008 TC3 was discovered on October 6 during routine searching as part of NASA's Catalina Sky Survey for near-Earth objects, by the Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona, USA. It was realised it would hit the Earth, but was small enough to ablate in the atmosphere and not strike the surface. It arrived close to its expected place and timing at around 02:46 UT on October 7 over Sudan in eastern Africa. |
New Scientist are reporting that meteorites have been recovered from this event over Sudan. Thanks to Jeff Brower for the link. |
.... and here too http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/41873107.html
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Rosanella
If we do not try, we will not know. (Ayya Khema)  |
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
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Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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Thanks Rosanella.
I'm afraid I made a rather poor job of providing notice of the teleconference, but I hope some readers and listeners managed to hear it. The accompanying slides are here.
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
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Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:55 am Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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| Quote: | | October 7 brought a world's first event - the predicted atmospheric entry of an asteroid! Asteroid 2008 TC3 was discovered on October 6 during routine searching as part of NASA's Catalina Sky Survey for near-Earth objects, by the Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona, USA. It was realised it would hit the Earth, but was small enough to ablate in the atmosphere and not strike the surface. It arrived close to its expected place and timing at around 02:46 UT on October 7 over Sudan in eastern Africa. |
2008 TC3 featured heavily at this year's Division for Planetary Sciences 2009 scientific programme. You can access the abstracts submitted for the session on meteorites from here.
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:22 pm Post subject: Re: APOD: Trail from Atmospheric Entry of Asteroid 2008 TC3 |
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| david entwistle wrote: | | 2008 TC3 featured heavily at this year's Division for Planetary Sciences 2009 scientific programme. You can access the abstracts submitted for the session on meteorites from here. |
Almahata Sitta, the name given to the meteorites resulting from the atmospheric entry of asteroid 2008 TC3, also had a dedicated session at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. You can read the reports specific to this meteorite fall here (2MByte pdf file).
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