The Impact and Recovery of 2008 TC3
Abstract
We report on the recovery of fragments from 2008 TC3, a small asteroid that impacted over northern Sudan on October 7, 2008. This was the first asteroid detected prior to impact and now also the first asteroid observed in space for which meteorites could be recovered. We interviewed eye witnesses of the fireball, who confirmed that the impact resulted in an explosion around 37 km high in the atmosphere, with no luminosity below 32 km. This is a behavior more typical of impacting comets than asteroids (fireball PE type IIIa/b). Never before had meteorites been recovered from an object exploding this high in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, 45 students and staff of the University of Khartoum were brought to the area just downstream of the explosion location, some 30 kilometers into the desert from the railroad track at Station 6 ("Almahata Sitta"). After two hours of searching on December 5, the first meteorite was recovered by Mohammed Alameen. The next two days, 14 more dark and scruffy looking meteorites were found that likely belonged to 2008 TC3, gradually increasing in size further along the approach path. A second search in late December brought the total number of recovered fragments up to 47, with a total mass of 3.95 kg, and increased the diversity of recovered materials. Some where very dark and flaky in texture, others light gray and fine grained. A third search in late February and early March 2009 measured the vertical extent of the strewn field, and thereby the conditions of ejection during the explosion, raising the total number of recovered fragments to close to 300. Aspects of the morphology and texture of the recovered meteorites in the strewn field will be discussed. The meteorite was classified as an anomalous polymict ureilite, now linked to asteroids of class F.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #41
- Pub Date:
- September 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009DPS....41.0901J