Asteroid Explodes Over Sudan 114
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.
Picture of explosion? (Score:3, Funny)
Pics or it didn't happen.
Re:Picture of explosion? (Score:5, Funny)
Pics or it did[n't] happen.
Fixed it for Schrödinger.
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Pics or it did[n't] happen.
Fixed it for SchrÃdinger.
Pics or it hit my cat.
Fixed that for you.
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Wouldn't it be more "Pics or [it, not it] didn't happen"?
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http://www.eumetsat.int/groups/public/documents/image/img_homepage_asteroid_2008.jpg
They Are in Our Prayers (Score:1, Funny)
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it's hard to have any per capita debt when you have nothing to buy.....
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Their earning capacity is like 1% as well...
It worked! (Score:2)
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TFA (Score:3, Funny)
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I wouldn't mind exploding over Susan. Rarrwww!
Sounds like a movie I once saw...Armaget-it-on.
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Explode over or on? (Score:1, Redundant)
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Over.
It completely burned up miles above the surface. That quote is like saying "Drakin020 had a birthday party with cake! No deaths have been reported yet." In other words, it's purely sensationalism. Though it is a true statement, no deaths will *ever* be reported due to this event, because none occurred.
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I don't know; have you ever been to one of Drakin020's birthday parties?
Only 99.8%? (Score:3, Funny)
Liike like this one sure beat the odds and proved everyone wrong...
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99.8 chance of what?! (Score:2, Insightful)
We mentioned the asteroid last on Monday, when it was only at a 99.8 percent chance of colliding with Earth.
[pedantic] you mean a 99.8 chance of colliding with Earth's atmosphere. [/pedantic]
From Slashdot's previous summary:
The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size; it is expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere, causing no harm
...so don't go running underground just yet, kids.
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I once saw a meteor that was large enough to show a disk -- albeit burning very brightly (it lit up the night like an old-fashioned flashbulb). It only lasted a few seconds after that. Sadly for disaster theorists, the atmosphere was just too much for it.
Until they start throwing rocks the size of large buildings, or strip off the atmosphere before doing so, I just can't get too worried about such trivial space junk.
(Anyone know how big a rock needs to start off to survive the passage thru the atmosphere an
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Anyone know how big a rock needs to start off to survive the passage thru the atmosphere and have any part of itself hit the ground??
Size doesn't matter (thank you. thank you. Tip your waitress). No, really. It matters, it just isn't "all" that matters. Relative velocity is just as important. If the body sneaks up on us from behind, it could actually have a relatively low differential velocity. The nickel-iron sample you found would probably fit in that category, and it slowed to terminal velocity befo
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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.
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Ohhhh... Oh dear. Silly me! I hope I didn't make the aliens fall out of their chairs when I picked it up.
Re:99.8 chance of what?! (Score:5, Interesting)
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Oh, very good, this does it nicely, thanks... I played with it a bit. Seems even a fairly large chunk of ice (100m) isn't enough to do more than make a few people go "What was that??" and it takes a similar-sized chunk of iron to make a crater like the famous one in Arizona.
I think we can all stop worrying ... except for me; in the latter example, I stood too close to the impact and was ejected from the crater. :)
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An AC bravely says,
"I wouldn't feel too safe. What if one of these meterors hit a place with no atmosphere, like New Jersey?"
And what would be so bad about that? ;)
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That's okay. It's not the end of the world if it's not the end of the world.
(from V3 [stationv3.com], can't find the exact strip)
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[doublypedantic]Some of it did hit the earth. It just didn't hit the earth intact, or in any large pieces[/doublypedantic]
Are you saying it all evaporated, and left the atmosphere? Because if any of it landed on the earth, then it did hit the Earth.
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Re:discovery.com (Score:2)
Thanks to discovery.com's commercials [youtube.com], I learned that most meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
Ah the atmosphere. Ahhhh!
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Hm, no wonder we have global warming. The meteors use up all the oxygen.
Fine, but no one really saw it (Score:2)
Spacewatch.com covered this about as well as one could expect. Apparently a couple airline pilots saw the possible fireball, but that's about it. I've seen no photos yet (probably none were captured). So although we infer the thing burned up (or "exploded!one!!111!!eleven" as per the /. headline), it's not as sensationalistic as Our Editors make it out to be.
Re:Fine, but no one really saw it (Score:5, Informative)
More comprehensive information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_TC3 [wikipedia.org]
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No recipes found? (Score:1)
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Yes, it was a bit touch and go there while the US, China and Russia were falling over themselves looking for stuff to veto to prevent anything from getting done.
Exercise for the reader: count the number of vetoes by nation and see just -why- the UN is "doing nothing"
Earth 1: Bugs 0 (Score:4, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our claim as overlords over these asteroid-flinging insects.
Invasion? (Score:2)
Would someone please search the Sudan desert for alien spores that will begin taking over human bodies if we don't kill them now while they are helpless?
Re:Invasion? (Score:5, Funny)
i have searched there is no danger please come see for yourself bring glucose
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Bristol? Is that you?
Re:Invasion? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Invasion? (Score:5, Funny)
Dear kind sir, I am located in the Sudan, and a small piece of this asteroid landed in a nearby field. I have investigated, and there is unfortunately evidence of alien spores. However, I am presently unable to eradicate them. If you could wire a sum of $10,000 (ten thousand dollars) to my account then I will be able to take action. I am an official in the Sudanese government, and can guarantee that your expendature will be reimburesed plus an additional $10,000 reward, but it operates slowly and the government funds will not be available in time.
I look forward to hearing back from you if you can help. I will send detailed information in response. I fear that if you do not help, the Earth may be susceptable to the alient invaders.
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Then again, I bet lots of disingenuous spam writers would love to have you help them...
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Given the way people are acting in the Sudan currently, things would probably be much better if they were all taken over by alien spores.
Why is this news? (Score:3, Insightful)
I was under the impression that these sort of tiny asteroids burned up in our atmosphere all the time and were observed as shooting stars.
Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
It's news because this is the first time we detected one before it hit and were able to track its descent.
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Wikipedia has a few items
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_TC3#External_links [wikipedia.org]
Honestly, pictures and video are very difficult for this, given that it is very small (at most 5m long), quite far away (it was still about 30km up when it exploded.), and was moving very fast (it entered the atmosphere at 12.8KM/s). It was only in the atmosphere for a few seconds before it blew up, not to mention it came in over a practically uninhabited area.
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A bit bigger than a shooting star, but frequent enough.
It's news because it was the first one that has been tracked, predicted to hit, and then hit.
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> It's news because it was the first one that has been tracked, predicted to hit, and then hit.
It's news because it was the first one that has been tracked.
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No we've tracked lots of rocks in space before, after they whiz by of course for ones that size. Which is the predicted to hit part (rather than "oh look it almost hit") and why it was originally news. It's news again because yes it did hit.
Just tracking does not get it on cnn.com.
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Because the asteroid was itentified and tracked days before it entered the atmosphere. For the first time, astronomers were able to predict the exact time and location the asteroid would strike (well, would have stuck if it hadn't exploded in the atmosphere). Also, what we see as shooting stars are little more than grains of sand, this was more like a good sized boulder and would have made a noticable fireball as it tracked across the sky.
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"Because the asteroid was itentified and tracked days before it entered the atmosphere."
Days? We wish. It was discovered on October 6, 06:38 UTC, and impacted on October 7, 02:46 UTC. That's not days... that's about 20 hours.
It's awesomely cool that we saw this one coming. It's just a baby, though, and as the articles noted they hit us several times a year. What would be awesomely UNcool is if we didn't see its Big Sister until 20 hours before it hits somewhere over the northeast US.
Personal bolide sto
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Don't forget that it was only two to five meters when measured head-on. When measured from the side it would only be one to four meters, and from the back four to seven meters.
Re:Guess what? (Score:4, Funny)
Head-on, apply directly to the atmosphere. Head-on, apply directly to the atmosphere. Head-on, apply directly to the atmosphere.
This thread is useless without pics (Score:1, Redundant)
I suppose it's kinda neat that the Spaceguard system actually spotted something, but at this small size the only interesting thing would be that we knew it was coming and could get a nice video. Surely somebody in Sudan is still alive and holding a video camera.
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You seriously over-estimate the level of technology available in Sudan.
(And the number of people per square mile, if it's in northern Sudan... It's quite possible there were only a few people within a hundred miles.)
*poof* bye bye (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
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The probability of an event that has already happened is always equal to 1. Predictions are uncertain only about the future, and, of course, for past events about which there is not enough information.
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100%, since it did collide with the earth :)
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Columbia said it was gonna splash into the Indian Ocean.
Princeton said it was not really there.
NYCC said "Whatsup with that?"
The SEC said "Deep fry more chikin".
The Pac-10 said, "Dude, Surfs up"
The Big-10 said, "Time to go huntin".
Everybody else didn't have a clue.
The End Is Near (Score:4, Funny)
Don't be fooled people. I've seen the movies. I know these things come in groups. If there's one, there's more, and a bigger one is surely on it's way. First the Tsunami, then Katrina and Ike, then the Economy, now this. Those of you who haven't been saved are doomed.
BTW, anyone want to buy a copy of my newsletter?
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Pfew! Thankfully I've got autosave mode on.
!! General Einstein Failure Detected, Please Reboot Universe !!
I'll Make the Call... (Score:1)
2008 TC3 to be renamed a dwarf asteroid (Score:1)
The International Astronomical Union should in the next General Assembly, decides, after a long week of intense discussions, that
1) meter sized asteroids should be called from now on "dwarf asteroids"
2) vaporized dwarf and normal asteroids should be declassified and put in the list of exctinct celestial bodies.
Alarmism Amok! (Score:3, Insightful)
From TFA:
"UPDATE: Please note that the use of an alarmist headline and imagery to increase the casual reader's desire to look at the entire article was an intentional parody."
CNN should hard-code that into their website's header.
Stupid hyperbole (Score:2)
"extreme test" my ass. I get all the "extreme" I could ever need on Discovery Channel, please keep the language inflation off Slashdot.
Marvin Martian says..... (Score:1)
Priorities. (Score:1)
There's a guy here (Score:1)
Calls himself General Zod, although I don't think his beard is regulation. Says he's looking for the office of solitude, or something like that. Says he's fresh from the Sudan, but I'm not sure about that as he's dressed ready for a disco...
Idiotic article (Score:2)
Yes, we know - an asteroid was tracked, blew up just as expected, and that's it. Have a look at the very nice "Bad Astronomy" site:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/06/incoming-2/ [discovermagazine.com]
While this article shows an artists impression of a huge asteroid striking our planet, text like "No deaths have been reported yet." and talking about equivalency to nuclear devices.
This kind of article belongs in a bottom-of-the-line newspaper like the german "Bild" or some crappy little website, but not on Sl
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Trouble with meteoroids? Try new Cosmic Preparation H!
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All this asteroids vs meteoroids talk on Slashdot just gave hemoroids a new meaning to me. There even is a crater!