Michael JensenAsteroid 2008 TC3 meets fiery end
October 7th 2008 11:15
2008 TC3 burning up (photo: Daily Mail)
Wow.
I was also amazed to hear that astronomers only provided the warning on Monday as they hasn't spotted it earlier as it's so dark and small. But this was a first as no-one has previously been able to predict one coming our way at all.
They also hadn't initially been sure whether it would hit us, as they were working on a surety of plus or minus the radius of the earth. That's a pretty wide margin of error, but still impressive enough.
I guess the biggest thing to be thankful for, knowing that an asteroid is coming our way, is that was sized between one and five metres and was going to burn up in the atmosphere. No Deep Impact in sight.
It seems that asteroids are a constant source of interest for astronomers (and film makers). Just last month European scientists and engineers announced their desire for a potential new mission to drill into an asteroid and bring some of it back.But if it goes ahead, that won't be until 2017, so let's not hold our collective breath.
So vale 2008 TC3, and thanks for giving our astronomers the chance to see you coming.
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