NASA managed to picture an asteroid bigger than the Empire State Constructing and with comparable proportions because it hurtled previous Earth originally of February, 2023.
The asteroid, designated 2011 AG5, handed safely previous our planet at a distance of round 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), about 5 occasions the space between Earth and the moon. However, whereas it posed no hazard of impacting our planet, the asteroid may truly nonetheless have an enormous scientific impression.
The shut method allowed scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California to trace the space rock, and make invaluable observations to assist decide its measurement, rotation, floor particulars, and, most notably, form.
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This chance, the primary permitting astronomers to take such an in depth take a look at 2011 AG5 since its discovery in 2011, revealed the asteroid to be about 1,600 ft (500 meters) lengthy and about 500 ft (150 m) vast. Which means the asteroid is extraordinarily elongated.
At simply over thrice so long as it’s vast, the asteroid has surprisingly comparable proportions to the Empire State Constructing, one of many New York skyline’s most hanging sights.
“Of the 1,040 near-Earth objects noticed by planetary radar to this point, this is without doubt one of the most elongated we have seen,” principal scientist at JPL, Lance Benner, who led the observations, stated in a statement. (opens in new tab)
The observations had been collected with the 230-foot (70 m) Goldstone Solar System Radar antenna dish on the Deep Area Community’s facility close to Barstow, California, between Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, this 12 months.
The telescope captured a number of different traits of 2011 AG5 together with a concave dent in one of many asteroid’s two hemispheres. The asteroid additionally possesses delicate darkish and light-weight areas that might point out small floor options only a few meters in diameter. Regardless of these variations in shade, the asteroid would seem charcoal darkish if seen with the human eye.
The analysis crew was additionally capable of decide that 2011 AG5 rotates slowly, taking round 9 hours to finish a full flip.
The Goldstone observations additionally give astronomers at JPL’s Middle for Close to Earth Object Research (CNEOs) a greater thought of the trajectory of the space rocks, which takes 621 Earth days to orbit the sun.
The asteroid 2011 AG5 was the main focus of a substantial amount of consideration shortly after its discovery because it was suspected to have a small probability of impacting Earth in 2040.
“Apparently, shortly after its discovery, 2011 AG5 turned a poster-child asteroid when our evaluation confirmed it had a small probability of a future impression,” director for CNEOS at JPL Paul Chodas, stated within the assertion. “Continued observations of this object dominated out any probability of impression, and these new ranging measurements by the planetary radar crew will additional refine precisely the place it will likely be far into the long run.”
Whereas 2011 AG5 will not hit Earth in 2040, the asteroid shall be again for one more shut method, throughout which it would get even nearer, passing our planet at a distance of round 670,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) about thrice the Earth-Moon distance
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