On Feb. 3, an asteroid greater than 3 times so long as it’s huge safely flew previous Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers, or a bit of below 5 instances the space between the Moon and Earth). While there was no threat of the asteroid—known as 2011 AG5—impacting our planet, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California intently tracked the article, making invaluable observations to assist decide its measurement, rotation, floor particulars, and, most notably, form.
This close approach offered the primary alternative to take an in depth have a look at the asteroid because it was found in 2011, revealing an object about 1,600 ft (500 meters) lengthy and about 500 ft (150 meters) huge—dimensions similar to the Empire State Building. The highly effective 230-foot (70-meter) Goldstone Solar System Radar antenna dish on the Deep Space Network’s facility close to Barstow, California, revealed the scale of this extraordinarily elongated asteroid.
“Of the 1,040 near-Earth objects noticed by planetary radar up to now, this is without doubt one of the most elongated we have seen,” mentioned Lance Benner, principal scientist at JPL who helped lead the observations.
The Goldstone radar observations came about from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, capturing a number of different particulars: Along with a big, broad concavity in one of many asteroid’s two hemispheres, 2011 AG5 has delicate darkish and lighter areas that will point out small-scale floor options a number of dozen meters throughout. And if the asteroid had been seen by the human eye, it will seem as darkish as charcoal. The observations additionally confirmed 2011 AG5 has a sluggish rotation charge, taking 9 hours to completely rotate.
Beyond contributing to a greater understanding of what this object seems to be like up shut, the Goldstone radar observations present a key measurement of the asteroid’s orbit across the Sun. Radar offers exact distance measurements that may assist scientists at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) refine the asteroid’s orbital path. Asteroid 2011 AG5 orbits the Sun as soon as each 621 days and will not have a really shut encounter with Earth till 2040, when it would safely move our planet at a distance of about 670,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers, or practically 3 times the Earth-Moon distance).
“Interestingly, shortly after its discovery, 2011 AG5 became a poster-child asteroid when our analysis showed it had a small chance of a future impact,” mentioned Paul Chodas, the director for CNEOS at JPL. “Continued observations of this object ruled out any chance of impact, and these new ranging measurements by the planetary radar team will further refine exactly where it will be far into the future.”
CNEOS calculates each recognized near-Earth asteroid orbit to offer assessments of potential affect hazards. Both the Goldstone Solar System Radar Group and CNEOS are supported by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program inside the Planetary Defense Coordination Office on the company’s headquarters in Washington.
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More details about planetary radar, CNEOS, and near-Earth objects may be discovered at: www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch
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