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Tiny asteroid discovered Saturday disintegrates over Africa
phys.org ^ | June 4, 2018 | by Dc Agle, JPL/NASA

Posted on 06/04/2018 8:37:59 AM PDT by Red Badger

A boulder-sized asteroid designated 2018 LA was discovered Saturday morning, June 2, and was determined to be on a collision course with Earth, with impact just hours away. Because it was very faint, the asteroid was estimated to be only about 6 feet (2 meters) across, which is small enough that it was expected to safely disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere. Saturday's asteroid was first discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, located near Tucson and operated by the University of Arizona.

Although there was not enough tracking data to make precise predictions ahead of time, a swath of possible locations was calculated stretching from Southern Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and onto New Guinea. Reports of a bright fireball above Botswana, Africa, early Saturday evening match up with the predicted trajectory for the asteroid. The asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere at the high speed of 10 miles per second (38,000 mph, or 17 kilometers per second) at about 16:44 UTC (9:44 a.m. PDT, 12:44 p.m. EDT, 6:44 p.m. local Botswana time) and disintegrated several miles above the surface, creating a bright fireball that lit up the evening sky. The event was witnessed by a number of observers and was caught on webcam video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnBvSNYy-EY

When it was first detected, the asteroid was nearly as far away as the Moon's orbit, although that was not initially known. The asteroid appeared as a streak in the series of time-exposure images taken by the Catalina telescope. As is the case for all asteroid-hunting projects, the data were quickly sent to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which calculated a preliminary trajectory indicating the possibility of an Earth impact. The data were in turn sent to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where the automated Scout system also found a high probability that the asteroid was on an impact trajectory. Automated alerts were sent out to the community of asteroid observers to obtain further observations, and to the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. However, since the asteroid was determined to be so small and therefore harmless, no further impact alerts were issued by NASA.

"This was a much smaller object than we are tasked to detect and warn about," said Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer at NASA Headquarters. "However, this real-world event allows us to exercise our capabilities and gives some confidence our impact prediction models are adequate to respond to the potential impact of a larger object."

The ATLAS asteroid survey obtained two additional observations hours before impact, which were used by Scout to confirm the impact would occur, and narrowed down the predicted location to southern Africa. Infrasound data collected just after the impact clearly detected the event from one of the listening stations deployed as part of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The signal is consistent with an atmospheric impact over Botswana.

"The discovery of asteroid 2018 LA is only the third time that an asteroid has been discovered to be on an impact trajectory," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at JPL. "It is also only the second time that the impact location was predicted well ahead of the event itself."

The first event of this kind was the impact of asteroid 2008 TC3, which lit up the predawn sky above Northern Sudan on October 7, 2008. That was a slightly larger asteroid (about 13 feet, or 4 meters in size), and it was discovered a full 19 hours before impact, allowing for a large number of follow-up observations and a very precise trajectory to be calculated. The second predicted impact event was for asteroid 2014 AA, which was discovered only a few hours before impact on Jan. 1, 2014, in the Atlantic Ocean, leaving too little time for follow-up observations. The Catalina Sky Survey has been responsible for discovering all three of these small asteroids on impact trajectories, and all on the watch of the same observer, Richard Kowalski.

Explore further: Small asteroid to shave safely by Earth Friday

Provided by: JPL/NASA


TOPICS: Astronomy; Education; History; Science
KEYWORDS: 2018la; africa; asteroid; catastrophism; marshalleubanks; meteorite; otswana; zlaf9b2
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VIDEO AT LINK!......................
1 posted on 06/04/2018 8:37:59 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

2018 LA, we hardly knew ye...


2 posted on 06/04/2018 8:40:37 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: PLMerite

Good thing. it was only 2 meter across......................


3 posted on 06/04/2018 8:44:42 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger; Chode

< ChickenLittleVoice >

The SKY IS FALLING !!! THE SKY IS FALLING !!!

THE SKY IS FAL, THWACK!! THUD!!

Nevermind NASA was late with the Warning E-Mail...

</ ChickenLittleVoice >


4 posted on 06/04/2018 8:47:17 AM PDT by mabarker1 (congress- the opposite of PROGRESS!!!)
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To: Red Badger

Just wait until a 30-50 ft iron meteor slips by us.


5 posted on 06/04/2018 8:53:15 AM PDT by LukeL
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To: Red Badger

The interesting take-away from the video is that farms in South Africa now need security cameras.


6 posted on 06/04/2018 8:56:02 AM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (Time to BLOAT again.)
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To: LukeL

That might make for a small nuclear size blast....................


7 posted on 06/04/2018 8:59:32 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: mabarker1

At least we now know that an object that small is detectable......................


8 posted on 06/04/2018 9:00:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger
At least we now know that an object that small is detectable......................


9 posted on 06/04/2018 9:04:29 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

LOL!.................I love that movie!................


10 posted on 06/04/2018 9:06:48 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger

I wonder if it was filled with Vibranium???


11 posted on 06/04/2018 9:06:54 AM PDT by polishprince
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To: Red Badger; SJackson; SunkenCiv; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Kaslin

A “small” sudden bright light many years off of South Africa’s coast (well out over the ocean) was thought to be an Israeli nuke test blast.

Good to see a semi-unified network actually is working in near-real time.


12 posted on 06/04/2018 9:08:15 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (The democrats' national goal: One world social-communism under one world religion: Atheistic Islam.)
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To: polishprince

Did it land in Wakanda?.....................


13 posted on 06/04/2018 9:08:48 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger

What would be the result of a asteroid 20 to 40 foot in diameter do the same?


14 posted on 06/04/2018 9:35:22 AM PDT by Rumplemeyer (The GOP should stand its ground - and fix Bayonets)
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To: Rumplemeyer

Chelyabinsk.................

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor


15 posted on 06/04/2018 9:40:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger

Thank you. Sweet Jesus, can you imagine the destruction in the NY City area.


16 posted on 06/04/2018 10:43:04 AM PDT by Rumplemeyer (The GOP should stand its ground - and fix Bayonets)
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To: Rumplemeyer

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Enter kilo-tons or mega-tons and watch the destruction..............


17 posted on 06/04/2018 10:44:54 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Robert A Cook PE; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
The supposed Israeli nuke test was a bolide impact.

18 posted on 06/04/2018 12:14:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: BBell; Robert A Cook PE; 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; ...
Thanks Robert A Cook PE.

19 posted on 06/04/2018 12:17:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: Red Badger

They didn’t even hunt the whole team down to drill it.


20 posted on 06/04/2018 12:27:32 PM PDT by pas
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