The Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar, a part of NASA’s Deep Area Community, made these observations of the just lately found 500-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) asteroid 2024 MK, which made its closest strategy—inside about 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) of Earth—on June 29. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Deep Area Community’s Goldstone planetary radar had a busy few days observing asteroids 2024 MK and 2011 UL21 as they safely handed Earth.
Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California just lately tracked two asteroids as they flew by our planet. One turned out to have slightly moon orbiting it, whereas the opposite had been found solely 13 days earlier than its closest strategy to Earth. There was no danger of both near-Earth object impacting our planet, however the radar observations taken throughout these two shut approaches will present useful observe for planetary protection, in addition to details about their sizes, orbits, rotation, floor particulars, and clues as to their composition and formation.
Passing Earth on June 27 at a distance of 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers), or about 17 occasions the gap between the moon and Earth, the asteroid 2011 UL21 was found in 2011 by the Catalina Sky Survey, in Tucson, Arizona. However that is the primary time it has come shut sufficient to Earth to be imaged by radar. Whereas the almost mile-wide (1.5-kilometer-wide) object is assessed as being doubtlessly hazardous, calculations of its future orbits present that it will not pose a menace to our planet for the foreseeable future.
Utilizing the Deep Area Community’s 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar, known as Deep Area Station 14 (DSS-14), close to Barstow, California, JPL scientists transmitted radio waves to the asteroid and acquired the mirrored indicators by the identical antenna. Along with figuring out the asteroid is roughly spherical, they found that it is a binary system: A smaller asteroid, or moonlet, orbits it from a distance of about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers).
“It’s thought that about two-thirds of asteroids of this measurement are binary methods, and their discovery is especially necessary as a result of we will use measurements of their relative positions to estimate their mutual orbits, plenty, and densities, which offer key details about how they might have fashioned,” mentioned Lance Benner, principal scientist at JPL who helped lead the observations.
As a result of shut approaches by asteroids the scale of 2024 MK are comparatively uncommon, JPL’s planetary radar group gathered as a lot details about the near-Earth object as doable. This mosaic reveals the spinning asteroid in one-minute increments about 16 hours after its closest strategy with Earth. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
These seven radar observations by the Deep Area Community’s Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar reveals the mile-wide asteroid 2011 UL21 throughout its June 27 shut strategy with Earth from about 4 million miles away. The asteroid and its small moon (a brilliant dot on the backside of the picture) are circled in white. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This sundown photograph reveals NASA’s Deep Area Station 14 (DSS-14), the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna on the Goldstone Deep Area Communications Complicated close to Barstow, California. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Second shut strategy
Two days later, on June 29, the identical group noticed the asteroid 2024 MK cross our planet from a distance of solely 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers), or barely greater than three-quarters of the gap between the moon and Earth. About 500 ft (150 meters) broad, this asteroid seems to be elongated and angular, with outstanding flat and rounded areas.
For these observations, the scientists additionally used DSS-14 to transmit radio waves to the item, however they used Goldstone’s 114-foot (34-meter) DSS-13 antenna to obtain the sign that bounced off the asteroid and got here again to Earth. The results of this “bistatic” radar statement is an in depth picture of the asteroid’s floor, revealing concavities, ridges, and boulders about 30 ft (10 meters) broad.
Shut approaches of near-Earth objects the scale of 2024 MK are comparatively uncommon, occurring about each couple of a long time, on common, so the JPL group sought to collect as a lot knowledge concerning the object as doable.
“This was a unprecedented alternative to analyze the bodily properties and acquire detailed photographs of a near-Earth asteroid,” mentioned Benner.
The asteroid 2024 MK was first reported on June 16 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Final Alert System (ATLAS) at Sutherland Observing Station in South Africa. Its orbit was modified by Earth’s gravity because it handed by, decreasing its 3.3-year orbital interval across the solar by about 24 days. Though it’s categorised as a doubtlessly hazardous asteroid, calculations of its future movement present that it doesn’t pose a menace to our planet for the foreseeable future.
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NASA’s planetary radar tracks two giant asteroid shut approaches (2024, July 3)
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