Impact in 3....2....1....

~Lurking in the depths of space, a piece of material left over from the formation of the solar system has orbited the sun for billions of years. Hurtling through the void, its path has now brought it to its final destination: Earth!

No, no, it's not that bad. However, for the first time, astronomers were able to accurately calculate the location that a small asteroid would explode in Earth's atmosphere.

The meteor, designated Asteroid 2008 TC3 (or 8TA9D69), was between 3 and 15 feet in diameter, and was discovered by astronomers at Mount Lemon Observatory, which is operated by the University of Arizona. It entered Earth's atmosphere and subsequently exploded in a 1-kiloton fireball at 10:46 pm EST over northern Sudan, moving eastward towards the Red Sea (which is northeast of the Horn of Africa).

The meteor was predicted to explode in the upper atmosphere, and therefore did not cause any damage on the ground (although I imagine it might have given some uninformed pilots in the area quite a shock). I think it's amazing that astronomers were able to detect and predict the fate of this asteroid, and it gives me hope that larger and potentially dangerous space objects could be detected before they impact Earth.

Of course, even if we did know that a killer asteroid was headed our way, there's not much we could do about it at this point. Our only realistic option would be to assemble a team of roughneck oil drillers led by Bruce Willis to land on the asteroid and destroy it. Bruce, the survival of our civilization is in your hands!