06 October 2008

Liveblogging a pending asteroid strike

This is very cool. A small asteroid was detected today and is predicted to collide with the earth.
JPL 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.
So it's due to enter the atmosphere 8 minutes from now. After that:
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.

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