NASA’s planetary radar captures detailed view of oblong asteroid

On Feb. 3, an asteroid greater than thrice so long as it’s vast safely flew previous Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers, or just a little beneath 5 occasions the space between the Moon and Earth). Whereas 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 take 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) vast—dimensions akin to the Empire State Constructing. The highly effective 230-foot (70-meter) Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar antenna dish on the Deep House Community’s facility close to Barstow, California, revealed the size of this extraordinarily elongated asteroid.

“Of the 1,040 near-Earth objects noticed by planetary radar thus far, this is likely one of the most elongated we have seen,” stated 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: Together with a big, broad concavity in one of many asteroid’s two hemispheres, 2011 AG5 has refined darkish and lighter areas that will point out small-scale floor options just a few dozen meters throughout. And if the asteroid had been considered by the human eye, it will seem as darkish as charcoal. The observations additionally confirmed 2011 AG5 has a gradual rotation charge, taking 9 hours to totally rotate.

Past contributing to a greater understanding of what this object appears like up shut, the Goldstone radar observations present a key measurement of the asteroid’s orbit across the Solar. Radar supplies exact distance measurements that may assist scientists at NASA’s Heart for Close to Earth Object Research (CNEOS) refine the asteroid’s orbital path. Asteroid 2011 AG5 orbits the Solar 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 almost thrice the Earth-Moon distance).

“Curiously, shortly after its discovery, 2011 AG5 grew to become a poster-child asteroid when our evaluation confirmed it had a small likelihood of a future influence,” stated Paul Chodas, the director for CNEOS at JPL. “Continued observations of this object dominated out any likelihood of influence, and these new ranging measurements by the planetary radar staff will additional refine precisely the place will probably be far into the longer term.”

CNEOS calculates each identified near-Earth asteroid orbit to offer assessments of potential influence hazards. Each the Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar Group and CNEOS are supported by NASA’s Close to-Earth Object Observations Program inside the Planetary Protection Coordination Workplace on the company’s headquarters in Washington.