Thanks BenLurkin.
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Posted on 05/30/2013 2:51:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Late yesterday, NASA turned the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California towards Asteroid 1998 QE2 as it was heading towards its closest approach to Earth, and they got a big surprise: the asteroid is a binary system. 1998 QE2 itself is 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) in diameter, and the newly found orbiting moon is about 600 meters in diameter.
The radar images were taken were taken on May 29, 2013, when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth.
“Radar really helps to pin down the orbit of an asteroid as well as the size of it,” said Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program office, speaking during a JPL webcast about this asteroid on May 30. “We now know our size estimates were pretty good, but finding it was a binary was surprising.”
NASA said that about 16 percent of asteroids are binary or even triple systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
The double deckers get to whack us twice ~
Binary system....?
I’d just call it a cluster $%#@.....
Let’s hope Earth’s gravity field doesn’t rip it loose! Maybe it was a “triple system” last time it came around? Maybe the Mayans knew what they were talking about,,,,, er,,,, probably not!
Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD members.
Oh, great. And the Boy Scouts have been discriminating against them all these years.
I’m starting to suspect that some asteroids have an associated cluster of material in their general trajectory from earlier collisions. If this is the case, there should be an increase in meteorites before and after a major fly by.
Ruh roh. It’s the mother ship!
I admit that I cannot understand how gravity works, but I had no idea the an asteroid could attract a moon.
Revisit the Russian meteor?
Ya got something against two moons?
IOW, if the big rock doesn’t hit us, the little one will?
” I had no idea the an asteroid could attract a moon.”
That must be something like a midget taking on a fat lady.
It’s a female asteroid and her calf. They are leaving the birthing grounds and headed north to the feeding grounds.
How’d they get her up?-oops! Wrong QE2!
Good shots.
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