NASA’s planetary radar captures detailed view of oblong asteroid

On Feb. 3, an asteroid greater than thrice so long as it’s broad safely flew previous Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers, or a bit below 5 instances the gap 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 dimension, rotation, floor particulars, and, most notably, form.

This close approach supplied 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 toes (500 meters) lengthy and about 500 toes (150 meters) broad—dimensions similar 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 scale of this extraordinarily elongated asteroid.

“Of the 1,040 near-Earth objects noticed by planetary radar to this point, this is among the most elongated we have seen,” stated Lance Benner, principal scientist at JPL who helped lead the observations.

The Goldstone radar observations happened 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 which will point out small-scale floor options a couple of dozen meters throughout. And if the asteroid had been considered by the human eye, it might seem as darkish as charcoal. The observations additionally confirmed 2011 AG5 has a gradual rotation fee, 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’s going to safely move our planet at a distance of about 670,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers, or almost thrice the Earth-Moon distance).

“Apparently, 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 impression,” stated Paul Chodas, the director for CNEOS at JPL. “Continued observations of this object dominated out any likelihood of impression, and these new ranging measurements by the planetary radar staff will additional refine precisely the place it will likely be far into the longer term.”

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