For the first time, astronomers have found an object on a certain collision course with Earth. Fortunately, it is so small it is not expected to cause any damage, burning up in the atmosphere somewhere above northern Sudan in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. It may, however, produce a brilliant 'shooting star'. Read more
The impact location has been narrowed down to 21N, 33E, at 2:46 UT, which is in in northern Sudan. The probability for impact is between 99.8% and 100%. The asteroid will track from the northwest, so observers in Europe, northern Africa could possibly see the atmospheric entry phase. Depending on the composition the atmospheric impact and breakup should release ~ 1 kiloton of energy.
Steve Chesley (JPL) reports that atmospheric entry will occur on 2008 Oct 07 0246 UTC [Oct 6 at 10:46 p.m. Eastern US time] over northern Sudan. Read more
Orbital elements: 2008 TC3 Earth MOID = 0.0000 AU Epoch 2008 Oct. 6.0 TT = JDT 2454745.5 MPC M 328.44590 (2000.0) P Q n 0.68871009 Peri. 233.94885 +0.37343159 -0.92760486 a 1.2699260 Node 194.13377 +0.86362066 +0.35153118 e 0.2847655 Incl. 2.32440 +0.33868601 +0.12639247 P 1.43 H 30.4 G 0.15 U 8
A small asteroid (H=30) was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon. 8TA9D69 (2008 Oct. 06.2 UT. R.A. = 23 16.8, Dec. = +07 52, V = 18.9) The 0.002 km asteroid is predicted to collide with the Earth at 1:53 UT, 7th October, 2008.