https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/1999KW4/1999kw4.html
Mass is about 2.4 x 10^12 kg.
Posted on 06/04/2019 6:01:30 PM PDT by ETL
*ping*
Did you?
You're the one who claimed the experts were wrong.
In astronomical terms: "IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!!"
Can’t
Really
Believe
Them.
This
Photo
Is
Crap
They couldnt use the zoom on their phone, in Pro Mode, and saved it as a raw file, then convert it to jpeg for a much sharper image, using Photoshop?
LOL!
That is a definite possibility, although I'm not so sure that it was an impact that caused them to separate. I would think an impact would have more scattered the debris.
However, I guess an impact could have at least loosened some material, resulting in the smaller piece slowly separating at some later time, perhaps with gravitational help from the Sun or even other planet that it had possibly passed close to.
“In any case, I too thought with the scopes they have today they would be able to take a much clearer photo than that.”
If it was a terrestrial telescope used to take the photo (I’m sure it was), there might not have been time to utilize adaptive optics capability (to “erase” the effects of atmospheric turbulence). Also, the existing photo is probably pretty dang good in terms of resolution.
Oh but, we can send a man to the moon?
/S
When it got closer, in 2001, astronomers realized it wasn’t a single asteroid, but two clusters of rubble orbiting each other.
It’s been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, but astronomers have calculated a safe trajectory out for at least 1,000 years.
Since it’s a binary object, astronomers are able to calculate the mass and density of the two asteroids.
New observations from the Arecibo Observatory have mapped the twin objects in tremendous detail.
Researchers using the Arecibo Observatory’s powerful radar have made the most detailed observations ever of a binary near-Earth asteroid (NEA) — two clusters of rubble circling each other — offering new clues about how such systems formed, the properties they share and the dynamics of their motion.
The observations, made by Steve Ostro, senior research scientist at the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (who earned his master’s degree in engineering physics at Cornell), Jean-Luc Margot, assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell, and their colleagues, describe asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 (called KW4). Their report appears in the latest issue (Nov. 24) of the journal Science. The double asteroid also appears on the cover.
KW4, they say, is actually a pair of light, porous clusters of rubble that circle each other as they orbit from a point closer to the sun than Mercury and then outward — occasionally passing very close to Earth along the way.
The bodies were discovered in 1999 but were not known to be binary until they were observed in May 2001, when they came within about 2.98 million miles of Earth — their closest pass until 2036.
The researchers used antennas at Arecibo and NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network — the only telescopes with the radar capability for such observations. Arecibo, in Puerto Rico, is managed by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center at Cornell for the National Science Foundation.
KW4 is a valuable source of information for planetary scientists studying the formation and evolution of NEAs — as well as for researchers studying how to mitigate the potential threat they pose to Earth. KW4 is classified a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, but data show that its path will not intersect Earth’s for at least 1,000 years.
Unlike single asteroids, many of whose physical properties are impossible to determine from Earth-based observations, binaries can reveal information about their mass and density by their interaction with each other. The researchers were able to reconstruct the orbit, mass, shape and density of KW4’s two components, Alpha and Beta.
They found an oddly shaped pair of dance partners, with Alpha, by far the larger (1.5 kilometers, or a little less than one mile, in diameter) of the two, spinning as fast as possible without breaking apart, and the smaller and denser Beta wobbling noticeably as it orbits its partner. ...”
https://www.universetoday.com/947/detailed-look-at-twin-asteroid-1999-kw4/
God is truly wondrous.
I agree it does seem odd that it can hold a moon in orbit.
There seems to be something wrong with your keyboard.
Didn't you say in that oddly formatted post that you thought the photo was crap?
Optics are governed by a theoretical resolving limit called the “diffraction limit.” But most observations from Earth are “seeing-limited” due to atmospheric effects and work at a much lower resolution than the diffraction limit. The distortion introduced by the passage of light through several miles of turbulent atmosphere is the limiting factor. Most advanced observatories use adaptive optics technology to compensate for atmospheric turbulence, resulting in greater image resolution for faint targets, but it is still difficult to reach the diffraction limit using adaptive optics.
I worked for a startup company founded by two telescope optical scientists from the Keck Observatory. We were applying their adaptive optics technology to free space optical communication.
Or something like that
lol
Either that or you slept at a Holiday Inn last night?
(hoping you remember that old TV commercial from the 80s, or was it 90s?)
In any case, thanks for the insider info. :)
They were the geniuses; I was the dumb grunt in marketing figuring out how to take the product to market. The biggest challenge was we had to ship a PhD in every box we sold just to keep it running. Quite unreasonably, they wanted to be let out periodically to eat and crap.
It is an amazing GIF. It truly is.
It depends upon the period of the rotation. I think the real period is about 17 hours. The speed in the video is exaggerated.
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