The sky is falling!!!

[Devil_Woman]

Well, sort of. A small meteoroid was found today headed for earth. It is expected to enter our atmosphere around 2:46 am GMT tomorrow morning, likely over northern Sudan. It's not expected to actually impact but burn up in the atmosphere. If you're in Europe (and awake at such an early hour) you might have a chance to see the fireball.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1579816/asteroid_to_make_appearance_tonight/

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14880-space-rock-found-on-collision-course-with-earth.html

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

Just for .... fun

For reference, a 1 kilometer sized asteroid would impact with the Earth releasing the same energy as a 20,000 megaton blast. It would leave a 13 km sized crater at the impact point and throw enough debris into the atmosphere to cause nuclear winter.

Past near misses:

 object name         date   closest distance
 Eros                1931   23 million km
 Icarus              1968   6.4 million km
 unnamed 10km object 1972   60 km (!) *1
 unnamed 20km object 1988   1.1 million km

Eros is approximately 33x13x13 kilometers (20x8x8 miles) in size and resembles a "fat banana."

Icarus, The Spitzer results imply a diameter of 0.28±0.05 km

*1

In 1972, a 1000-ton object skimmed tangentially through Earth's atmosphere over the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, and then skipped back out into space, like a stone skipping off water. It was photographed by tourists and detected by Air Force satellites. Had it continued on into the atmosphere, it could have caused a Hiroshima-scale explosion over Canada

A house sized asteroid enters Earths Atmosphere frequently. We do not see or hear about them because .... the earth surface is mostly water and as such has very few observers.

BUT of course we should all know about .... right? ..... it is our future that is or is NOT being taken into consideration

Asteroid Apophis: Dealing with Earth's Future Troublemaker

Worrisome to asteroid watchers is the exceptionally close flyby of Earth by Apophis on April 13, 2029. So close in fact, the space rock will be naked-eye visible as it darts by. And what can't be ruled out at this time is that Apophis may pass through a gravitational "keyhole" - a spot that alters the asteroid's trajectory as it zips by our planet and might put it on the bee-line lane for banging into Earth seven years later.

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

A follow up to your post.

On the Trail of 2008 TC3

Explanation: On October 7, the early dawn over northern Sudan revealed this twisted, high altitude trail. Captured in a video frame, the long-lasting persistent train is from the impact of a small asteroid cataloged as 2008 TC3. That event was remarkable because it was the first time an asteroid was detected in space before crashing into planet Earth's atmosphere. In fact, after astronomers discovered 2008 TC3, the time and location of its impact were predicted based on follow-up observations. Later, the impact predictions were confirmed by sensors, including a Meteosat-8 image of a bright flash in the atmosphere. Astronomers are now hoping for more reports of local ground-based observations of what must have been a brilliant meteor streaking through Sudan's night sky. Additional reports could improve the chances of recovering meteorites.