An asteroid that slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere over northern Sudan, designated 2008TC3, had been discovered just a day earlier.
This was the first time an object had been discovered before hitting the Earth. Astronomer Richard Kowalski discovered the asteroid with the 1.5 metre telescope of the Catalina Sky Survey. The survey operates from Mt Lemmon near Tuscon, Arizona and also has a component at Siding Spring, Australia.
Soon after discovery other astronomers determined the path of the 2-metre-wide asteroid and determined that it was on a collision course with Earth.
In the 19 hours or so before 2008TC3 moved into the Earth’s shadow prior to impact 26 observatories around the globe provided an amazing 570 observations. These observations allowed the impact point to be determined to be over northern Sudan in Africa.
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