Bolide Prediction

John ONeill wrote:

Its just a space rock.

Err, isn't that what all asteroids are?

And perhaps you missed the salient point - this is the first "space rock" that was discovered and identified as an impactor prior to it hitting the Earth.

This is good news - it is direct evidence that we can identify impactors. In this case, yes it was small and yes, it was only identified a day before impact. Nonetheless, it shows that we have the ability and the communication channels to identify and track these things. The calculated impact location was spot on.

By the way, the MPML boards were red hot last night and the MPC were issuing updates a few times per hour - judging by other comments, this is a first at a lot of different levels.

Dave

Is there any videos of it entering the atmosphere. ?

Dave - it was in a pretty remote location so no video of it entering the atmosphere.

There is however this image showing it entering Earth's shadow:

www.minorplanets.org/OLS/2008_TC3/


And this animation:

www.astroalert.su/files/anim2008tc3-new.gif

Also,


"Half an hour before the predicted impact of asteroid 2008 TC3, I informed an official of Air-France-KLM at Amsterdam airport about the possibility that crews of their airliners in the vicinity of impact would have a chance to see a fireball. And it was a success! I have received confirmation that a KLM airliner, roughly 750 nautical miles southwest of the predicted atmospheric impact position, has observed a short flash just before the expected impact time 0246 UTC. Because of the distance it was not a very large phenomenon, but still a confirmation that some bright meteor has been seen in the predicted direction."



Full article:


www.spaceweather.com/

neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news160.html

Impact of Asteroid 2008 TC3 Confirmed
Don Yeomans
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office October 7, 2008

Confirmation has been received that the asteroid impact fireball occurred at the predicted time and place. The energy recorded was estimated to be 0.9 to 1.0 kT of TNT and the time of detection was
02:45:45 on October 7 (Greenwich Standard Time). More details on this detection will be forthcoming. An addition confirmation was apparently reported by a KLM airliner (see: www.spaceweather.com/ ). As reported by Peter Brown (University of Western Ontario, Canada), a preliminary examination of infrasound stations nearest to the predicted impact point shows that at least one station recorded the event. These measurements are consistent with the predicted time and place of the atmospheric impact and indicate an estimated energy of 1.1 - 2.1 kT of TNT.

Dave,

Err, no.

Just wait until Dawn gets to Ceres and Vesta and you will see real asteroids (i.e. minor planets), not just rocks! The asteroids viewed close up until now are really just large rocks (maybe at least some are better described as rubble piles).

Before that Rosetta will see Lutetia.

John

Indeed - really looking forward to the Dawn mission (which I'm helping support with astrometry to the JPL).

When's Rosetta due to get an image - any ideas?

Also, I was interested in your post yesterday on CI Cygni. I'll respond there.

DAve