Earth is going to be hit by an Asteroid tomorrow morning....

Small Asteroid to Light Up Sky Over Africa

10.06.08

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Mt. Lemmon telescope.

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WASHINGTON – An asteroid measuring several feet in diameter is

expected to enter the atmosphere over northern Sudan before dawn

Tuesday, setting off a potentially brilliant natural fireworks display.

It is unlikely any sizable fragments will survive the fiery passage

through Earth's atmosphere. The event is expected to occur at 5:46 a.m.

local time (10:46 p.m. EDT Monday).

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few

months," said Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The unique aspect of this

event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object

during its final approach."

The small space rock, designated 2008 TC3, will be traveling on an

eastward trajectory that will carry it toward the Red Sea.

"Observers in the region could be in for quite a show," Yeomans said.

"When the object enters the atmosphere, it could become an extremely

bright fireball."

The small space rock first was observed by the Mount Lemmon telescope

of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey early Monday and reported to the

Minor Planet Center for initial orbit determination. The Minor Planet

Center alerted NASA and JPL of the impact potential. NASA detects and

tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth

Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," plots the

orbits of these objects to determine if any could be potentially

hazardous to our planet.

For more information, visit: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

Credits starts Media contacts: DC Agle 818-393-9011

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Ca.

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726

NASA Headquarters, Washington

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

 
My astronomy teacher is talking about it right now, size of a car, going to burn up over Sudan, if it doesn't it will most likely fragment into smaller pieces.

Not expected to cause property damage or loss of life.
 
yeah all the big asteroids you hear about crashing into earth were like once the size of a house but they burn up in the atmosphere and like a few chunks penetrate and hit unsuspecting fat texans
 
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