An asteroid either hit the earth or exploded over the sky around 2:45 am GMT on Tuesday 7th Oct 2008 in Northern Sudan. The resulting explosion detected by an infrasound station in Kenya is estimated to be equivalent to 1.1 -2.1 kiloTons of TNT . This asteroid impact represents the first ever accurate prediction of an asteroid entering earth's atmosphere. The infrasound station was installed in the late 1990s to detect extremely low frequency soundwaves.
Its interesting that this instrument was able to detect the explosion considering the distance and seismic noise in the Rift Valley. Infact, an earlier seismic activity study of the Olkaria area conducted by KenGen and University of Texas found a total of 460 active between May and Sept of 1996.
But back to the asteriod ... it was reportedly seen by passengers on a KLM flight about 1400 km away! The impact/explosion site is supposed to be a barren, sparsely populated region in the the Nubian desert though I am curious to know if anyone were able to collect a fragment
.... hmmm .....
or maybe not since we are talking about 1.1-1.2 kT of TNT !
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