‘Double asteroid’ snapped zooming by Earth at 43,000 mph
Posted on 06/04/2019 6:01:30 PM PDT by ETL
A unique “double asteroid” was photographed by a powerful telescope as it whizzed by Earth last month at over 43,000 mph.
The asteroid, classified as 1999 KW4, is made up of two components — a larger body orbited by a smaller one separated by about 1.6 miles.
It got as close as 3.2 million miles to Earth on May 25 — about 14 times the distance from Earth to the Moon, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a news release Monday.
The double asteroid, which has an orbit well known to scientists, is not an impact threat to Earth, ESO officials said.
Scientists with the ESO and the International Asteroid Warning Network worked together to predict the flyby and make appropriate preparations for observing the object.
The organization said it used its Very Large Telescope (VLT) to spot the passing asteroid.
The VLT was able to capture images sharp enough to distinguish the two parts of the asteroid thanks to its Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument.
SPHERE’s main purpose is to observe exoplanets — planets located outside our Solar System.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Again, this is not the actual asteroid and its smaller orbiting companion.
Nice!
I thought I saw that. And then I realized a bird had crapped on my windshield...
“Double asteroid’ zooming by Earth at 43,000 mph captured in amazing photo..”
Wait until one of those agates hits earth...that will shut up these global warming twats.
There is no way that rock has enough gravitational attraction to hold that smaller rock in orbit.
Did you do a calculation?
It’s estimated to be nearly one mile in diameter.
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite.
As of June 2019, there are 357 minor planets known or suspected to have moons.[1]
Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are important because the determination of their orbits provides estimates on the mass and density of the primary, allowing insights of their physical properties that is generally not otherwise possible.[2]
The first modern era mention of the possibility of an asteroid satellite was in connection with an occultation of the bright star Gamma Ceti by the asteroid 6 Hebe in 1977.
The observer, amateur astronomer Paul D. Maley, detected an unmistakable 0.5 second disappearance of this naked eye star from a site near Victoria, Texas.
Many hours later, several observations were reported in Mexico attributed to the occultation by 6 Hebe itself.
Although not confirmed, this documents the first formally documented case of a suspected companion of an asteroid.[3]
that’s...an...amazing...photo...
/s
A minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun (or more broadly, any star with a planetary system) that is neither a planet nor exclusively classified as a comet.[a]
Before 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially used the term minor planet, but during that year’s meeting it reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs).[1]
Minor planets can be dwarf planets, asteroids, trojans, centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, and other trans-Neptunian objects.[2]
As of 2019, the orbits of 794,832 minor planets were archived at the Minor Planet Center, 541,128 of which had received permanent numbers (for the complete list, see index).[3]
The first minor planet to be discovered was Ceres in 1801.
The term minor planet has been used since the 19th century to describe these objects.[4]
The term planetoid has also been used, especially for larger (planetary) objects such as those the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has called dwarf planets since 2006.[5][6]
Historically, the terms asteroid, minor planet, and planetoid have been more or less synonymous.[5][7]
This terminology has become more complicated by the discovery of numerous minor planets beyond the orbit of Jupiter, especially trans-Neptunian objects that are generally not considered asteroids.[7]
A minor planet seen releasing gas may be dually classified as a comet.
Objects are called dwarf planets if their own gravity is sufficient to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium and form an ellipsoidal shape.
All other minor planets and comets are called small Solar System bodies.[1]
The IAU stated that the term minor planet may still be used, but the term small Solar System body will be preferred.[8]
However, for purposes of numbering and naming, the traditional distinction between minor planet and comet is still used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet#Provisional_designation
“There is no way that rock has enough gravitational attraction to hold that smaller rock in orbit.”
A little advice? Stick to simple things like talking to your pets.
Physical characteristics
1999 KW4 has a minor-planet moon orbiting it.
The moon, designated S/2001 (66391) 1 is approximately 360 metres [~.22 miles] in diameter, and orbits its primary in every 16 hours at a mean-distance of 2.6 kilometers [1.61 miles].
The presence of a companion was suggested by photometric observations made by Pravec and Šarounová and was confirmed by radar observations from Arecibo observations and announced on 23 May 2001
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(66391)_1999_KW4#Physical_characteristics
They say the shot was the equivalent of an image of a building in New York City taken from Paris.
In any case, I too thought with the scopes they have today they would be able to take a much clearer photo than that.
We have really sharp images of Pluto and its satellite moons. But these images of course were taken by spacecraft we had sent there.
Be good advice for yourself, I don't have pets. Maybe you can show us the math that Big G shows how it is possible. Maybe even giving us a new calculation of Big G since no one has ever repeated the original experiment.
the more massive object is also “orbiting” the less massive one at a much slower rate. They are orbiting the center of gravity of the system. it does seem unlikely that small bodies could capture each other because they have very low escape velocities. I’d guess they were of the same objectn shattered in an impact and drifted apart due to other gravitational influences and even solar wind.
With a mass of?
Did you?
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