Rare space rock strikes Africa
August 22nd 2009 06:48
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Trails left by the fragments of the asteriod (NASA)
An asteroid the size of a small car exploded over Africa last October. This event created a great opportunity to get more information regarding the numerous space rocks surrounding our solar system.
Asteroid called. 2008 TC3, had apparently been studied before encountering a fiery descent to Earth.
The following day eyewitnesses in the Nubian desert saw a fireball in the sky as the remains of 208 TC3 breakup.
A small time later the recovery team and by members of the SEIT Institute in California mounted a search for fragments of the asteroid.
Good fortune rewarded the team with the recover y of some 47 fragments with a total mess of 3 .5 kg. Later analysis showed that the rock had been superheated sometime ago possibly when it collided with other space Rocks billions of years ago.
Of all the meteorites that were studied so far the carbon content of the meteorite fragments showed that this particular asteroid had been cooked to the greatest extent than any other meteorite found to date. Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time.
Asteriod captured during Earth encounter Image Credit: Richard Kowalski and Ed Beshore, Catalina Sky Survey
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