Asteroid to hit Earth! don't worry, no problems are expected from a great photo opp

NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) Program has detected an incoming asteroid and issued an alert for its crash in Africa. It's the first time, program managers say, that  such an event has been predicted ahead of time.

Not to worry though: Armageddon it's not. The asteroid will most likely create a fireball and some sky firewors.

Here's the word from the NEO folks:

A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery.

JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere.

The graphic from NEO shows the asteroid's path as it heads in towards Earth.

If you live in the region and get any great photographs, contact me. I'd love to feature your work.

Oh, and about that Armageddon thing: just in case, feel free to send Billy Bob Thornton to my house. For protection, you understand. Since we're talking about stars, asteroids, and all that, I thought I'd make things clear about my choice in asteroid safety.  Which reminds me: if you're looking for the hottest, the best, stars covrage, read my friend Liz Barrett's Celebrity News.