Small Asteroid to Light Up Sky Over Africa

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Ca.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-186 Oct. 6, 2008

Small Asteroid to Light Up Sky Over Africa

WASHINGTON -- An asteroid measuring several feet in diameter is expected to enter the
atmosphere over northern Sudan before dawn Tuesday, setting off a potentially brilliant natural
fireworks display.

It is unlikely any sizable fragments will survive the fiery passage through Earth's atmosphere. The
event is expected to occur at 5:46 a.m. local time (10:46 p.m. EDT Monday).

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months," said Don Yeomans
of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The unique
aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object during its final
approach."

The small space rock, designated 2008 TC3, will be traveling on an eastward trajectory that will carry
it toward the Red Sea.

"Observers in the region could be in for quite a show," Yeomans said. "When the object enters the
atmosphere, it could become an extremely bright fireball."

The small space rock first was observed by the Mount Lemmon telescope of the NASA-funded
Catalina Sky Survey early Monday and reported to the Minor Planet Center for initial orbit
determination. The Minor Planet Center alerted NASA and JPL of the impact potential. NASA
detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth Object Observation
Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," plots the orbits of these objects to determine if any could
be potentially hazardous to our planet.

For more information, visit: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

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