Awesome Radar Images Reveal Asteroid 2014 HQ124′s Split Personality

universetoday.com/ ^ | June 12, 2014 | Bob King on

[BenLurkin]

On June 8, the 370-meter (about 1,300-ft.) asteroid 2014 HQ124 breezed by Earth at a distance of just 800,000 miles (1.3 million km). Only hours after closest approach, astronomers used a pair of radio telescopes to produce some of the most detailed images of a near-Earth asteroid ever obtained. They reveal a peanut-shaped world called a ‘contact binary’, an asteroid comprised of two smaller bodies touching.

About one in six asteroids in the near-Earth population has this type of elongated or “peanut” shape. It’s thought that contact binaries form when two or more asteroids get close enough to touch and ‘stick’ together through their mutual gravitational attraction. Asteroid 25143 Itokawa, visited and sampled by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa in 2005, is another member of this shapely group.

[BenLurkin]

Radar delay-Doppler images of asteroid 2014 HQ124. Arecibo Observatory images appear on the top row and Goldstone images appear on the other rows: the larger Arecibo Observatory capabilities eliminated the “snow” visible in the other images. Credit: Marina Brozovic and Joseph Jao, JPL- Caltech/ NASA/ USRA/ Arecibo Observatory/ NSF

A single radar image frame close-up view of 2014 HQ124. Credit: NASA

[BenLurkin]

Short video at the link

[BenLurkin]

You might find this of interest

[Steely Tom]

The only estimate of its size is “370 meters,” but they don’t say whether that is across it’s long - or short - axis. For comparison, the length of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan is 333 meters.

The HQ124 Wiki page states that it would release (an estimated) 2000 MT of energy if it struck Earth, and leave a crater three miles in diameter.

HQ124 is not expected to come this close to Earth again until the year 2307, at the earliest.

[JoeDetweiler]

“...it would release (an estimated) 2000 MT of energy if it struck Earth, and leave a crater three miles in diameter.”

What’s the diameter of Washington DC?

[FredZarguna]

[Beowulf9]

How is it composed of two smaller binary’s touching? Looks like one rock to me.

[21twelve]

So THAT'S what my professor meant when he said it is a vacuum in space!

[Beowulf9]

*Correction.

Not Binary’s, Bodies.

[Gadsden1st]

That sucks!

[FredZarguna]

The vacuum cleaner is a mechanical Gödel Statement: When it sucks, it doesn't suck. And when it doesn't suck, it sucks.

[FredZarguna]

And now we have the smoking gun ... er .. dustbuster.

[hattend]

How does a radar image of something pick up lighting and shadows?

[BenLurkin]

That is a good question!

[MHGinTN]

It is shaped too much like a gun. The lawdogs must address this breech of political correctness!

[SunkenCiv]

Definitely of interest, thanks BenLurkin!

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[SunkenCiv]

The closer to perpendicular the surface, the brighter it will appear on radar.

[hattend]

Then the part that looks like sun reflection would be darker. I guess they reversed the image.