Asteroid 2008 TC3 is being observed closely by astronomers around the world. The orbit prediction now place the break-up of the object at 21.10 North, 30.35 East at 2:45:30 UT, high up in the atmosphere.
After hundreds of astrometric observations were reported in the last couple of hours the entry point is now confirmed to be over Northern Sudan. Below are two orbit solutions. The last three columns give the altitude above the Earth surface and the geographic longitude and latitude.
The orbits shown are colour coded. The planets are white lines, and the asteroid/comet is a blue line. The bright white line indicates the portion of the orbit that is above the ecliptic plane, and the darker portion is below the ecliptic plane. Likewise for the asteroid/comet orbit, the light blue indicates the portion above the ecliptic plane, and the dark blue the portion below the ecliptic plane.
"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months. The unique aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object during its final approach" - Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The tiny asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, is circled in colour in this Catalina Sky Centre image. It is the first asteroid found with a nearly 100 percent chance of hitting Earth. Fortunately, 2008 TC3 is far too small to do any damage. (Catalina Sky Survey)