Rock Science: First Meteorites Recovered on Earth from an Asteroid Tracked in Space
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 18:49
in Astronomy & Space
Last October, asteroid monitors at the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona in Tucson picked up a small object on an immediate collision course with Earth. The asteroid was too small to present a real threat--just a few meters across, it stood little chance of penetrating the atmosphere intact. Indeed, it exploded in a stratospheric fireball over northern Sudan less than 24 hours later--an event witnessed by people on the ground as well as the pilots of a KLM airliner--conforming well to astronomer's predictions for its trajectory. [More]
Read the whole article on Scientific American
More from Scientific American
Related
- Asteroid impact helps trace meteorite originsWed, 25 Mar 2009, 14:22:30 EDT
- Half-baked asteroids have Earth-like crustWed, 7 Jan 2009, 13:43:45 EST
- Asteroid monitored from outer space to ground impactWed, 25 Mar 2009, 17:17:11 EDT
- How to deflect asteroids and save the EarthThu, 16 Apr 2009, 12:50:44 EDT
- Scientists publish first ever evidence of asteroids with earth-like crustWed, 7 Jan 2009, 14:09:59 EST