News Flash: Asteroid Flying Past Earth Today Has Mini-Moon!

universetoday.com ^

[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 NASA’s 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 don’t miss the chance to see it in your telescope.

[onedoug]

The forces work together because ultimately they have to.

[BushCountry]

[RoadGumby]

So, atoms are held together by gravity?

[Jack Hydrazine]

ROFLMAO!!!

[moovova]

You crack me up.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin for both:

• How close a huge asteroid just came to Earth and how to see it

And thanks fool in paradise and Robert A. Cook, PE for the pings.

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[Go_Raiders]

You are mistaking gravity with electromagnetic force.

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_force_holds_the_electrons_around_the_nucleus_of_an_atom

[Stingray51]

fascinating

[Stingray51]

thanks, good explanation

[Cvengr]

Looks like a giant interstellar egg,...
about to be impregnated by something penetrating its surface,...just sayin...