Workshop on Asteroid 2008 TC3- 28OCT09

Workshop on Asteroid 2008 TC3 Scheduled

http://asima.seti.org/2008TC3/workshop2008TC3.html

WORKSHOP ON ASTEROID 2008 TC3
University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
Dec 5-15, 2009

INVITATION

The University of Khartoum, Faculty of Sciences and Physics Department,
and the SETI Institute invite planetary astronomers and meteoriticists
to participate in a workshop dedicated to asteroid 2008 TC3. Asteroid
2008 TC3 was the first asteroid to be detected in space and subsequently
found to impact the Earth. Fragments were recovered in the Nubian Desert
of northern Sudan in the form of rare ureilite meteorites, called
"Almahata Sitta".

Goal of the workshop is to discuss the results from ongoing research
into the properties of asteroid 2008 TC3 when it was still in space, its
nature and origin, the asteroid's impact in Earth's atmosphere, the
subsequent recovery, and the analysis of the recovered meteorites. Talks
on the origin of ureilites are invited, as well as discussions on how to
adjust observing strategies to increase the likelyhood of future
discoveries of small asteroids on a collision course with Earth.

By accepting this invitation, researchers will have a chance to examine
the collection of recovered meteorites and discuss how best to proceed
with the investigation of this small asteroid.

The workshop will be held on the days of December 6 and 7, 2009. The
University invites participants to take part in a banquet on the evening
of December 6 [Earliest return flight would be afternoon December 8].

In the week following, from December 8 to 15, there will be a site visit
to the area where Almahata Sitta was recovered . An effort will be made
to expand the diversity of recovered materials by finding more of the
fallen debris. Participants are asked to bring clothes and strong shoes,
suitable for outdoor camping and hiking. The weather can be cold at
night (bring woolen hat). Bring medication for a bad stomach,
anti-musquito spray, and sun-screen.

Itinerary: Dec. 8 - travel to Almahata Sitta; Dec. 9-12 - field survey;
[optional: Dec 13 - morning travel back to Khartoum (10-hr trip, arrive
3 pm afternoon at the earliest)]; Dec 13-15 - sight seeing along Nile,
back in Khartoum 4pm afternoon Dec. 15.

Abstract and registration <http://atv.seti.org/registration2008TC3.html

>
deadline is *November 1, 2009*. Please do not delay.

After registration (and sending us your passport pdf), you will receive
a letter of invitation from the University and a visa approval number
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sudan that should help expedite
the visa process. If there are any questions, please feel free to
contact us at: Petrus.M.Jenniskens [at] nasa.gov


Scientific Organizing Committee:

* Dr. P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute, USA (chair)
* Dr. S. Chesley, NASA JPL, USA
* Dr. A. Fitzsimmons, Queens U. Belfast, UK
* Dr. D. Nesvorny, SWRI, USA
* Dr. P. Scheirich, Ondrejov Observatory, Czech Republic
* Prof. C. Taricco, University of Torino, Italy
* Dr. M. H. Shaddad, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Dr. M. Zolensky, NASA JSC, USA

Local Organizing Committee:

* Dr. Muawia H. Shaddad, University of Khartoum, Sudan (chair)
* Dr. Omer Eid, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Dr. Arbab Ibrahim Arbab, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Dr. Abbakar Ali Abdella, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Saadia Elsir, Juba University, Khartoum, Sudan
* Ayman Ismael Hamid, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Hosam Eldeen Babiker, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Ayman Kudoda, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Diya Numan, University of Khartoum, Sudan
* Nesreen Shareef Hassan, University of Khartoum, Sudan

Contact information:
Muawia H. Shaddad, LOC chair, Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences,
University of Khartoum. Email: shaddadmhsh [at] yahoo.com; Tel.:
+249-912-359317.

Omer Eid, Head of the Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences,
University of Khartoum. Email: omereid [at] gmail.com; Tel.:
+249-11-780539.

Saadia Elsir, Juba University, Khartoum. Email: saadia.elsir [at]
yahoo.com; Tel.: +249-912-346333.

Peter Jenniskens, SOC chair, SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road,
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Email: Petrus.M.Jenniskens [at] nasa.gov;
Tel.: +1-650-8100216.

Der Asteroid von Bahnstation 6 29APR09

Meteoriten © 2009 NASA / Peter Jenniskens
Der Asteroid von Bahnstation 6
(lifepr) Heidelberg, 28.04.2009 -
http://www.lifepr.de/pressemeldungen/spektrum-der-wissenschaft-verlagsgesellschaft-mbh/boxid-103016.html

In den Morgenstunden des 7. Oktobers 2008 trat der rund vier Meter große Asteroid 2008TC3 in die Erdatmosphäre ein. Bruchstücke stürzten in die nubische Wüste im nördlichen Sudan. Damit wurde er vom Asteroiden zum Meteoriten. Erstmals wurde ein Himmelskörper mit Kollisionskurs auf die Erde beobachtet und bis zu seinem Aufprall verfolgt. Wissenschaftler fanden zwei Monate später Bruchstücke von 2008TC3 nahe einer Eisenbahnlinie, welche die beiden nordsudanesischen Städte Wadi Halfa und Abu Hamad verbindet. Untersuchungen zeigten nun, dass die Gesteinsbrocken einzigartig sind.

2008TC3 gehört zu den so genannten Achondriten, einer seltenen Klasse von Steinmeteoriten, die nur rund acht Prozent aller Meteoriten ausmacht, die auf die Erde fallen. Innerhalb dieser Klasse gehört er wiederum einer Unterart an, von der bisher nur ein einziges Exemplar auf der Erde gefunden wurde. Wissenschaftler suchten nach dem möglichen Herkunftsort von 2008TC3 und fanden einen rund drei Kilometer großen, erdnahen Asteroiden der Klasse F. Noch nie wurden Bruchstücke dieser seltenen Art im Labor untersucht.

Almahata Sitta - Bahnstation 6 Im Dezember 2008 suchte der NASA-Astronom und Meteoritenexperte Peter Jenniskens mit 45 anderen Personen in der sudanesischen Wüste nach Überbleibsel des Meteoriten. Nahe der ägyptischen Grenze, bei der Bahnstation Nummer 6 der Eisenbahnlinie zwischen Wadi Halfa und Abu Hamad wurden sie fündig. Insgesamt sammelten sie rund vier Kilogramm Gestein. Der Meteorit trägt nun den Namen seines Fundgebietes. Almahata Sitta, arabisch für Bahnstation 6.

Chronologie der Ereignisse
Ein Programm zur automatischen Himmelsüberwachung entdeckte 2008TC3 am 6. Oktober 2008. Rund dreizehn Stunden vor dem Aufprall errechneten Wissenschaftler seine Bahn. Aufgrund der geringen Größe des Himmelskörpers, erwarteten Experten, dass er vollständig in der Erdatmosphäre verglühen würde. Wenn nicht, würde er um 4:45 Uhr MESZ im nördlichen Sudan niedergehen. Mit einer Geschwindigkeit von mehr als zwölf Kilometern pro Sekunde raste 2008TC3 durch die irdische Lufthülle, leuchtete hell auf und explodierte in einer Höhe von rund 37 Kilometern. Übrig blieb eine Staubspur, die von Satelliten und vom Erdboden aus fotografiert wurde. 2008TC3 wog zwischen sechzig und hundert Tonnen und setzte eine Energie von etwa einem Zehntel der Hiroshima-Bombe frei, wie die Fachzeitschrift Sterne und Weltraum in ihrer Mai-Ausgabe feststellt.

Über Sterne und Weltraum
"Sterne und Weltraum", die 1962 gegründete Zeitschrift für Astronomie, berichtet umfassend, anschaulich und informativ über alle Bereiche der Astronomie, der Weltraumforschung und der Amateurastronomie. Fachleute präsentieren allgemeinverständlich die aktuellen Ergebnisse ihrer astronomischen Forschung und beschreiben die Entwicklung neuartiger Instrumente, Observatorien und Messverfahren. Amateurastronomen geben Tipps zum Beobachten interessanter Himmelsobjekte und -phänomene, testen Teleskope und deren reichhaltiges Zubehör und geben dem Sternfreund fundierte Anleitungen zur eigenständigen Erkundung des Sternenhimmels, zur Astrofotografie sowie zum Auswerten ihrer Beobachtungen. Produkte für die Amateurastronomie werden ebenso vorgestellt wie die schönsten Fotos von Galaxien, Sternhaufen und farbenprächtigen Nebeln. Beiträge aus der Astronomiegeschichte und zu Fragen des naturwissenschaftlichen Weltbildes runden das Themenspektrum ab.

Quellenangabe: Sterne und Weltraum, 5/2009

Chinese/Japanese Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News MAR09-APR09

科學家發現一粒微隕石“來歷不明”
2009年04月10日 20:48:56 　來源：新華網

新華網巴黎４月９日電（記者李學梅）一個由法國和美國科學家組成的科研小組經過研究證實，一粒早在約２０年前發現的微隕石雖含有玄武岩成分，但卻並非來自已知的玄武岩“專有”星球。這一研究發現在天文學界尚屬首次。
研究人員在新一期美國《國家科學院學報》上介紹說，這一被命名為“ＭＭ０４”的微隕石于１９９１年在南極洲被發現，質量只有幾微克，直徑不過１５０微米。經對其化學成分分析研究，他們發現它雖含有玄武岩成分，但卻既非來自月球，也非來自火星或灶神星。而之前發現的所有含有玄武岩成分的隕石，都分別來自這三個天體。
“我們發現過來自灶神星的玄武岩隕石，也有來自月球和火星的玄武岩隕石，”倫敦自然歷史博物館的專家卡羅琳·史密斯評論說，“但是對‘ＭＭ０４’的化學分析表明它不是來自這些地方。”
研究人員指出，這粒微隕石到底來自何處至今還是個謎，它很可能來自一顆還不為人知的行星。他們認為，對這粒微隕石繼續展開相關研究將有助于拓寬人類對行星的認識。
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-04/10/content_11165677.htm

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Meteorite News 2APR09

Meteorite Hunters Jailed In Burke County For Trespassing
WJBF-TV Augusta Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:30 AM PDT
According to The True Citizen, two Southwestern meteorite hunters found fame they weren`t searching for.

On the track of the fallen meteorite
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The Monterey County Herald

Scientists uncover new theory on largest known mass extinctionin earth's history
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2008 TC3, Almahata Sitta meteorite came from F-class asteroid 26MAR09

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=asteroid-meteorite-sudan-fireball

Rock Science: First Meteorites Recovered on Earth from an Asteroid Tracked in Space Fragments in the Sudanese desert make up an "asteroid trifecta":
discovery, prediction and recovery By John Matson Scientific American March 25, 2009

Last October, asteroid monitors at the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona in Tucson picked up a small object on an immediate collision course with Earth. The asteroid was too small to present a real threat - just a few meters across, it stood little chance of penetrating the atmosphere intact. Indeed, it exploded in astratospheric fireball over northern Sudan less than 24 hours later - anevent witnessed by people on the ground as well as the pilots of a KLM airliner- conforming well to astronomer's predictions for its trajectory. But the asteroid, dubbed 2008 TC3, was nonetheless a momentous discovery: Among the countless small objects that strike Earth's atmosphere every year, none had ever been detected and tracked before it impacted. Now the Sudan bolide has yielded yet another first:

Researchers report in Nature today
<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7237/full/nature07920.html>that they have recovered 47 meteorites from the object in the Nubian Desert. And lead author Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., says that another search completed earlier this month, after the paper was submitted, has upped the meteorite count to about 280.
Astronomer Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Programoffice <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/> at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory inPasadena, Calif., calls 2008 TC3 "a perfect asteroid trifecta,"referring to "pre-impact discovery, successful impact prediction, and successful sample return." (Yeomans did not contribute to the recovery research, but his office played a leading role in tracking the asteroid's entry <http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K08/K08T50.html>.)

The find allows astronomers to connect the chemical composition of the meteorite to its orbit and reflectance in the sky during tracking. "The holy grail of asteroid science is to uniquely link a specific meteorite and its detailed composition to a specific asteroid type," Yeomans says."And that has now been done without an expensive sample-return mission. "This object, which the study's authors call Almahata Sitta (Arabic for Station Six, a train station in the desert where eyewitnesses saw the fireball and that served as the researchers' base camp), appears to belong to a rare class of bodies called F-class asteroids, which constitute just 1.3 percent of all asteroids. Chemically speaking, Almahata Sitta is a meteorite whose specific composition is unique among meteorite collections. It is a fragile, porous ureilite (a relatively rare kind of olivine- and pyroxene-bearing meteorite)containing graphite and nanodiamonds, among other materials. Its fragility, Jenniskens says, helps explain why it broke apart so high in the atmosphere. With the benefit of the object's rarity as an F-class body and its orbit, tracked backward through time, the researchers established a possible link to a larger F-class asteroid, the 1.6-mile-(2.6-kilometer-) diameter 1998 KU2, which may have originated from the same parent body as Almahata Sitta."The orbit of the asteroid, by just tracking it for 20 hours, is 10,000times better than anything you can get from just observing a fireball Jenniskens says. "What's neat about this is that the big asteroid allows you to extend back in time the evolutionary history." He notes that scientists might be able to pinpoint the specific region of the asteroid belt that 2008 TC3 came from with more F-class asteroids from the same parent body. Even the brief amount of time 2008 TC3 was tracked provided an excellent lead on where to look- and the desert surface provided an ideal surface for turning up the dark fragments. "The entry trajectory was very precisely known," Jenniskens says. The first samples were found in early December by a 45-person search team from the University of Khartoum. (Three scientists from that university and one from the University of Juba in Sudan are among the co-authors of the study.) "We had many eyes and hands," Jenniskens says, trying "to find these."

2008 TC3 classified as a Ureilite 26MAR09

Carnegie Institution of WashingtonWashington, D.C.
Contact:Douglas Rumble, 202-478-8990
March 25, 2009

Asteroid Impact Helps Trace Meteorite Origins

The car-sized asteroid that exploded above the Nubian Desert last October was small compared to the dinosaur-killing, civilization-ending objects that still orbit the sun. But that didn't stop it from having a huge impact among scientists. This was the first instance of an asteroid spotted in space before falling to Earth. Researchers rushed to collect the resulting meteorite debris, and a new paper in Nature reports on this first-ever opportunity to calibrate telescopic observations of a known asteroid with laboratory analyses of its fragments."Any number of meteorites have been observed as fireballs and smoking meteor trails as they come through the atmosphere," says Douglas Rumble of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, a co-author of the paper."It's been happening for years. But to actually see this object before it gets to the Earth's atmosphere and then to follow it in -- that's the unique thing."The chemical compositions of asteroids can be studied from Earth by analyzing the spectra of sunlight reflected from their surfaces. This provides enough information to divide asteroids into broad categories, butdoes not yield detailed information on their compositions. On the otherhand, meteorites recovered on Earth can be analyzed directly for chemical composition, but researchers generally have no direct information on what type of asteroid they came from.The asteroid, known as 2008 TC3, was first sighted October 6, 2008, by telescopes of the automated Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson Arizona. Numerous observatories followed its trajectory and took spectrographic measurements before it disappeared into the Earth's shadow the following day. A recovery team led by Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in California and Muawia Shaddad of the University of Khartoum then searched for meteorites along the projected approach path in northern Sudan. They recovered 47 fragments, one of which was selected for preliminary analysisby laboratories, including the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory."This asteroid was made of a particularly fragile material that caused it to explode at a high 37 kilometer altitude, before it was significantly slowed down, so that the few surviving fragments scattered over a large area,"explains Jenniskens, the lead author of the Nature paper. "The recovered meteorites were unlike anything in our meteorite collections up to that point."Carnegie's Andrew Steele studied the meteorite's carbon content, which showed signs that at some point in its past the meteorite had been subjected to very high temperatures. "Without a doubt, of all the meteorites that we've ever studied, the carbon in this one has been cooked to the greatest extent," says Steele. "Very cooked, graphite-like carbon is the main constituent of the carbon in this meteorite." Another form of carbon Steele found in the meteorite, nanodiamonds, may give clues as to whether the heating was caused by impacts on the parent asteroid, or by some other process. Oxygen isotopes in the meteorite give other information about its parent body. Each source of meteorites in the solar system, including planets such as Mars, has a distinctive signature of the three isotopes 16O, 17O, and18O. This signature can be recognized even when other variables, such as chemical composition or rock type, differ. "Oxygen isotopes represent the single most decisive measurement in determining the parental or family groupings of meteorites," says Rumble who performed the analysis. According to Rumble's analysis, 2008 TC3 falls into a category of very rare meteorites called ureilites, all of which may have originally come from the same parent body. "Where that is, we don't know," says Rumble. But because astronomers took spectral measurements of 2008 TC3 before it hit the Earth,and can compare those measurements with the laboratory analyses, scientists will be better able to recognize ureilite asteroids in space. One known asteroid with a similar spectrum, the 2.6 kilometer-sized asteroid 1998 KU2, has already been identified by researchers as a possible source for 2008 TC3. Rumble's work was funded by NASA Cosmochemistry grant NNX07AI48G. Steele was supported by NASA's Sample Return Laboratory Instruments and Data Analysis Program (SRLIDAP) , NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program , and the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).

IMAGE CAPTION:[http://www.ciw.edu/sites/www.ciw.edu/files/news/PRRumbleSteeleAsteroid-ImageAMedforWeb.jpg(31KB)]

This fragment of Asteroid 2008 TC3 provided scientists with the first-ever opportunity to calibrate telescopic observations of a known asteroid with laboratory analyses.

2008 TC3 Asteroid monitored from outer space to ground 26MAR09

Public Affairs

Sandia National Laboratories

Media contact: Neal Singer, (505) 845-7078

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 25, 2009

We saw it coming:

Asteroid monitored from outer space to ground impact

Sandians Mark Boslough and Dick Spalding watch it in real time

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Reports by scientists of meteorites striking Earth in the past have resembled police reports of so many muggings -- the offenders came out of nowhere and then disappeared into the crowd, making it difficultto get more than very basic facts.Now an international research team has been able to identify an asteroid inspace before it entered Earth's atmosphere, enabling computers to determineits area of origin in the solar system as well as predict the arrival timeand location on Earth of its shattered surviving parts."I would say that this work demonstrates, for the first time, the ability ofastronomers to discover and predict the impact of a space object," saysSandia National Laboratories researcher Mark Boslough, a member of theresearch team.Perhaps more importantly, the event tested the ability of society to respond very quickly to a predicted impact, says Boslough. "In this case, it was never a threat, so the response was scientific. Had it been deemed a threat-- a larger asteroid that would explode over a populated area -- an alert could have been issued in time that could potentially save lives by evacuating the danger zone or instructing people to take cover. "The profusion of information in this case also helps meteoriticists learn the orbits of parent bodies that yield various types of meteorites.Such knowledge could help future space missions explore or even mine the asteroids in Earth-crossing orbits, Boslough says.The four-meter-diameter asteroid, called 2008 TC3, was initially sighted by the automated Catalina Sky Survey telescope at Mount Lemmon, Ariz., on Oct.6. Numerous observatories, alerted to the invader, then imaged the object. Computations correctly predicted impact would occur 19 hours after discovery in the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan. According to NASA's Near Earth Object program, "A spectacular fireball litup the predawn sky above Northern Sudan on October 7, 2008."A wide variety of analyses were performed while the asteroid was en route and after its surviving pieces were located by meteorite hunters in an intense search.

Researchers, listed in the paper describing this work in the March 26 issueof the journal Nature, range from the SETI Institute, the University of Khartoum, Juba University (Sudan), Sandia, Caltech, NASA Johnson Space Center and NASA Ames, to other universities in the U.S., Canada, Ireland,England, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Sandia researcher Dick Spalding interpreted recorded data about the atmospheric fireball, and Boslough estimated the aerodynamic pressure and strength of the asteroid based on the estimated burst altitude of 36 kilometers. Searchers have recovered 47 meteorites so far -- offshoots from the disintegrating asteroid, mostly immolated by its encounter with atmospheric friction -- with a total mass of 3.95 kilograms.The analyzed material showed carbon-rich materials not yet represented in meteorite collections, indicating that fragile materials still unknown may account for some asteroid classes. Such meteorites are less likely to survive due to destruction upon entry and weathering once they land on Earth's surface."Chunks of iron and hard rock last longer and are easier to find than clumps of soft carbonaceous materials," says Boslough."We knew that locating an incoming object while still in space could be done, but it had never actually been demonstrated until now," says Boslough."In this post-rational age where scientific explanations and computer models are often derided as 'only theories,' it is nice to have a demonstration like this."Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M.,and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

IMAGE CAPTIONS:[Image 1:

http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2009/images/asteroid_boslough.jpg(4.7MB)]

Don't look back -- it may be gaining on you: Sandia's Mark Boslough discusses aspects of asteroids (Photo by Randy Montoya)

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http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2009/images/asteroid_spalding.jpg(1.5MB)]

Dick Spalding examines the night sky (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Meteorite News 26MAR09

Scientists Catch Shooting Star For First Time
CBS 2 Los Angeles Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:16 PM PDT
For the first time scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon.

Astronomers catch a shooting star
The Times of India Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:47 AM PDT
WASHINGTON: For the first time, US scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon.

How Did They Catch a Shooting Star?
ABC News Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:21 AM PDT
Astronomers matched a shooting star with a meteorite found on Earth.

Meteorite matches with asteroid
News 24 South Africa Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:18 AM PDT
For the first time US scientists have matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky.

Scientists Track Down Fallen Star Treasure
TechNewsWorld.com Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:12 AM PDT
For the first time, scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon. Last October, astronomers tracked a small nonthreatening asteroid heading toward Earth before it became a "shooting star."

Jesus Christ's face appears on broken meteorite
Pravda Ru Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:14 AM PDT
Russian scientists noticed the image of Jesus Christ on the meteorite which fell down on the Earth about 100 years ago. The image is identical to the one that appears on the Shroud of Turin.

Meteorite found in Sudan
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:17 AM PDT
For the first time, scientists have matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed.

Scientists trace meteorite origins
Spacetoday.net Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:36 AM PDT
Planetary scientists have for the first time linked an asteroid observed before it entered the...

Asteroid's past can help plan future
Seattle Times Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:13 AM PDT
For the first time scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky...

NASA-- Sudan Meteorite Recovery Teleconference to be held 25MAR09

MEDIA ADVISORY : M09-044

NASA Sets Teleconference To Discuss Recovered Meteorites

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference on Wednesday, March 25, at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UT) to reveal science findings from recently discovered meteorites.

The meteorites originate from a small asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan on Oct. 7, 2008. The discovery presents scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to understand these nomads of the solar system better.

The briefing participants are:

- Peter Jenniskens, meteor astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

- Steve Chesley, scientist in NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

- Michael Zolensky, cosmic mineralogist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

- Lucy McFadden, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland in College Park

Reporters who would like to participate in the call should submit requests for dial-in instructions to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov.

A replay of the teleconference will be available until May 1 by dialing 888-403-4660.

Supporting visuals will be available online at the start of the event at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/tc3

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio