It was the first time that scientists recovered fragments from an asteroid detected in space
13 hours warning to meteor impact
STUNNED astronomers watched a car-sized asteroid explode into a brilliant meteor shower as it crashed into Earth's atmosphere.
They then went to a Sudanese desert to pick up the pieces of the asteroid, for which they had only 13 hours warning of impact.
It was the first time that scientists recovered fragments from an asteroid detected in space, according to a study published in the British journal Nature on Wednesday.
“Any number of meteorites have been observed as fireballs and smoking meteor trails as they come through the atmosphere,” said co-author Douglas Rumble, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution.
“But to actually see this object before it gets to the Earth's atmosphere and then follow it in - that's the unique thing.”
2008 TC3 falls into a category of very rare meteorites - accounting for less than one per cent of objects that hit Earth - called ureilites, all of which may have come from the same parent body, Rumble said.
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