A team of American scientists has recovered fragments of aasteroidwhich was observed in space before falling to Earth. The asteroid2008 TC3it is the first recovered space rock that had previously been sighted before crossing the atmosphere. It shot through the skies over northern Sudan on the morning of October 7, 2008, and then exploded over theNubian desertbefore the atmosphere could appreciably slow it down. At first it was believed that the asteroid had completely disintegrated into dust, but researchers have managed to recover up to47 fragments.
The asteroid was the size of a large car and it is believed that prior to impact it had beencirculating in the solar system for 4,500 years. The arrival of the asteroid was followed by several groups of astronomers, including a team from the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands that was able to measure the sunlight reflected by the object. “It was an extraordinary opportunity, for the first time to bring to the laboratory real pieces of an asteroid that we had seen in space,” says Peter Jenniskens, director of the research published today.Nature. The recovery of these fragments is as important as the samples collected by space missions.
“This asteroid was made of a particularly fragile material which caused it to explode at an altitude of 37 kilometers, before it slowed down, so the few fragments that survived spread over a large area. The recovered meteorites have nothing to do with it. look with existing meteorite collections, “adds Jenniskens.
According to the researchers, the 2008 TC3 belongs to a category of very rare meteorites calledureilitasthat they could all have their origin in the same body whose origin is unknown at the moment. The coal from the meteorite had been subjected to much higher temperatures than other known ones, to the point that it wasgraphite. It also contained tinydiamonds.
