Posted on 01/26/2015 6:34:33 PM PST by BenLurkin
Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km), has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASAs 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body.
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2004 BL86 measures about 1,100 feet (325 meters) across while its moon is approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. The asteroid made its closest approach today (Jan. 26th) at 10:19 a.m. (CST), however it will peak in brightness this evening around 10 p.m. (4:00 UT) at magnitude +9.0. Unlike some flybys, 2004 BL86 will remain within a few tenths of a magnitude of peak brightness from 6 p.m. tonight (CST) through early tomorrow morning, so dont miss the chance to see it in your telescope.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Put a pair of pants on it and it won’t moon us.
Congratulations! You are the first human on earth to write that sentence. And it happenend right here on FR. Monumental!
I saw that too, but I guess once they get big enough they tend to get rounder?
The mini moon is likely a piece of the main asteroid that got broken off during a collision with another object.
If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If ethyl runs out, get Mabel.
lol
A Mini Moon! Yes! That's what I need!
It’s snowing in DC. What asteroid?
On second thought, this is DC so we have many Hemorrhoids instead. I can see them from my window. They are called Democrats and politicians.
Modern physics (qm gr) is all the rage, but good old classical mechanics has a certain beauty and simplicity that just can’t be beat.
boogida boogida
Consider that the nucleus of an atom can hold all kinds of electrons in moonlike orbit. Yet the nucleus is so tiny we cannot even see it.
?zer0’s brain?
Wait there is Mass to it so that blows that theory...
I’m going to wait until that glint of light has made at least one orbit.
Looks like it though.
If you moon an ASSteroid, you will be the butt of many jokes.
“U-Pump Ethyl”. My very favorite gas,station of all time. Columbia, MO, 1972.
The trick is that gravity is based on mass and distance. In the asteroid belt, the planets are so far away that their gravitational influence is very weak. Asteroids have much less mass, but since they are much closer, they exert the largest attraction in the neighborhood, and start orbiting each other.
“Consider that the nucleus of an atom can hold all kinds of electrons in moonlike orbit.”
It doesn’t hold them in orbit with gravity though, that is electromagnetism.
Possibly manifestations of the same basic force, but we haven’t established that connection yet.
Man! This could be the little planet the fierce little starship warriors come from that fly out of the dog’s head in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. That passage was so cool I had to read it a couple of times. Anyone remember that?
Yeah, the bigger the object (or the more mass really), the higher its gravity becomes. That will tend to distort the object into a compact, round shape, as all the matter tries to get as close as possible to the center of mass.
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