Asteroid fragments found in Nubian Desert

Meteorite hunters have found fragments of a car-sized asteroid, known as 2008 TC3, located in the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan. 

A total of 47 meteorite fragments of the 2008 TC3 were recovered by researchers across the Nubian Desert where the asteroid created a fireball as bright as the full moon - then it exploded. 

The brilliant fireball was observed by various satellites, including a weather satellite called Meteosat-8. 

"Any number of meteorites have been observed as fireballs and smoking meteor trails as they come through the atmosphere. It's been happening for years," said Geophysicist Dr Douglas Rumble, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC. 

"But to actually see this object before it gets to the Earth's atmosphere and then to follow it in - that is the unique thing," Rumble added. 

When telescopes of the automated Catalina Sky Survey spotted the asteroid on October 6 last year, it was just 20 hours away from hitting Earth. 

According to orbital calculations, the object would plunge into the atmosphere above Sudan at 0246 GMT on October 7, and it arrived as anticipated. 

It was the first time scientists detected a space rock ahead of a collision with our planet. 

The compositions of asteroids can be studied through a telescope by analyzing the way sunlight reflects from their surfaces.