[Chaos-l] Fwd: NASA Releases Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55

[Tony Rice]

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory <info at jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:06 PM
Subject: NASA Releases Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55
To: Tony Rice <rtphokie at gmail.com>


  [image: JPL/NASA News]

Image/Video advisory: 2011-346
                                                                     Nov.
8, 2011

* NASA Releases Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55 *

*The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: *
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-346&cid=release_2011-346<http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=qjJVL8PUIhIPKgJ&s=ddJKKJOiG7JIKTMvEqG&m=ijIUJ3OJJbJUKlK>

PASADENA, Calif. -- Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter)
Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a short
movie clip of asteroid 2005 YU55. The images were generated from data
collected at Goldstone on Nov. 7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m.
PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST). They are the highest-resolution images
ever generated by radar of a near-Earth object.

The short movie clip can be found at:
*http://1.usa.gov/uVJvmS*<http://1.usa.gov/uVJvmS>.

Each of the six frames required 20 minutes of data collection by the
Goldstone radar. At the time, 2005 YU55 was approximately 860,000 miles
(1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Resolution is 4 meters per
pixel.

"The movie shows the small subset of images obtained at Goldstone on
November 7 that have finished processing. By animating a sequence of radar
images, we can see more surface detail than is visible otherwise," said
radar astronomer Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the 2005 YU55
observations, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"The animation reveals a number of puzzling structures on the surface that
we don't yet understand. To date, we've seen less than one half of the
surface, so we expect more surprises."

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of
closest approach today at 3:28 p.m. PST (6:28 p.m. EST/2328 UTC), it was no
closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers), as measured from the center
of Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no
detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides
or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings
it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with
Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200
years.

The last time a space rock as big came as close to Earth was in 1976,
although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next
known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close
to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth
Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these
objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to
determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch . More information about asteroid
radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ . More information about
the Deep Space Network is at: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

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