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NASA releases new images of nearby asteroid

asteroid.jpgRunning on adrenaline and coffee, a team of planetary radar engineers and scientists at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California’s Mojave Desert is preparing for a third look at close-passing asteroid 2005 YU55 today after producing detailed images on 6 and 7 November (see right).

At around 400 metres in diameter, passing around 0.85 of the distance between the Earth and the Moon, 2005 YU55 is predicted to pass closer today than has any other asteroid of its size since 1976.

The latest images produced intense excitement in the control room when they came through, says planetary radar scientist Marina Brozovic on behalf of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory radar team. Whereas lower-resolution radar images from 2010 suggested that the asteroid was roughly spherical, the new images reveal a more oblong form and include bright speckles that some on the team have speculated might be boulders. “The most exciting time is when you see that first image,” she says. “It’s really special.”

Today the other side of the asteroid, which has a rotation period of about 18 hours, is expected to move into view, allowing the researchers to take data that they hope will produce an animation over the next few days. The radar images are also refining scientists’ knowledge of the rock’s orbit (site may be slow). Brozovic says that a potential fly-by in 2041 has already been ruled out but that the rock will again come within one lunar distance of the Earth — and again miss it — in 2075. “There’s no possibility of hitting us. It will just be a really cool radar track,” she says.

As Nature reported on 2 November, radar astronomers aren’t the only ones on the case. At just over 11th magnitude, the asteroid is expected to be visible tonight to anyone with a telescope over about 6 inches, and several amateur campaigns are under way.

Update 9 November. NASA has released a movie animation

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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