This area will cover relevant news of the threat to the planet from Near Earth Objects (NEOs) including concepts and designs for mitigation. All opinions are those of the author.

20 October 2008

2008 TC3 impact flash observations: Webcam?



From mpml....

Apparently, this Webcam about 725 km north of the impact site of 2008 TC3, in Egypt on the Red Sea, was looking the wrong way to see the actual impact flash. However, it does show foreground objects illuminated by the flash. There's a full-moon image provided for comparison, in which nothing is visible. The implication is that the meteor flash was probably much brighter than full moon intensity, even at a distance of 725 km.

The page also claims that the angle of illumination suggests that the meteor exploded about 33 km above the ground, after allowing for refraction and the earth's curvature. (Based solely on the distance between the Meteosat-8 image of the flash and where it was projected to hit the earth, I'd have thought a little lower than that, but could believe 33 km.)

I do wonder how a flash this bright could have gone unobserved elsewhere, but the images don't seem completely unreasonable.

- Bill J Gray (from online posting)

Link: MPML: 2008 TC3 impact flash observations

Link: Original Link (in German)

Link: Translation of above German article

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