Cancel

gear Push settings

bars

homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Radar images of an asteroid during its closest flyby

Between Oct. 28 and Oct. 30, NASA‘s Deep Space Network antenna in California was directed on “2007 PA8“, a one mile wide asteroid. In these few days the asteroid came the closest it will ever get to Earth in 200 years, which was still a few million miles away. Nevertheless, NASA released composite images of […]

Tibi Puiu
November 7, 2012 @ 10:06 am

share Share

Between Oct. 28 and Oct. 30, NASA‘s Deep Space Network antenna in California was directed on “2007 PA8“, a one mile wide asteroid. In these few days the asteroid came the closest it will ever get to Earth in 200 years, which was still a few million miles away. Nevertheless, NASA released composite images of the radar survey, allowing us to get closer to the asteroid on our own term.

The asteroid’s distance from Earth on Oct. 28 was 6.5 million miles (10 million kilometers). The asteroid’s distance to Earth was 5.6 million miles (9 million kilometers) on Oct. 30. The perspective in the images is analogous to seeing the asteroid from above its north pole. Each of the three images is shown at the same scale. (c) NASA

The asteroid’s distance from Earth on Oct. 28 was 6.5 million miles (10 million kilometers). The asteroid’s distance to Earth was 5.6 million miles (9 million kilometers) on Oct. 30. The perspective in the images is analogous to seeing the asteroid from above its north pole. Each of the three images is shown at the same scale. (c) NASA

On Nov. 5, the asteroid came even closer to our planet — 4 million miles, or about 17 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.

via JPL NASA

share Share

Space Solar Panels Could Cut Europe’s Reliance on Land-Based Renewables by 80 Percent

A new study shows space solar panels could slash Europe’s energy costs by 2050.

Astronomers See Inside The Core of a Dying Star For the First Time, Confirm How Heavy Atoms Are Made

An ‘extremely stripped supernova’ confirms the existence of a key feature of physicists’ models of how stars produce the elements that make up the Universe.

Scientists May Have Found a New Mineral on Mars. It Hints The Red Planet Stayed Warm Longer

Scientists trace an enigmatic infrared band to heated, oxygen-altered sulfates.

A Comet That Exploded Over Earth 12,800 Years Ago May Have Triggered Centuries of Bitter Cold

Comet fragments may have sparked Earth’s mysterious 1,400-year cold spell.

Astronomers Find ‘Punctum,’ a Bizarre Space Object That Might be Unlike Anything in the Universe

Bright, polarized, and unseen in any other light — Punctum challenges astrophysical norms.

How Much Has Mercury Shrunk?

Mercury is still shrinking as it cools in the aftermath of its formation; new research narrows down estimates of just how much it has contracted.

First Complete Picture of Nighttime Clouds on Mars

Data captured by the Emirates Mars Mission reveal that clouds are typically thicker during Martian nighttime than daytime.

A Supermassive Black Hole 36 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun Might Be the Heaviest Ever Found

In a massive galaxy, known for its unique visual effect lies an even more massive black hole.

Scientists Have a Plan to Launch a Chip-Sized, Laser-Powered Spacecraft Toward a Nearby Black Hole and Wait 100 Years for It to Send a Signal Home

One scientist thinks we can see what's really in a black hole.

Distant Exoplanet Triggers Stellar Flares and Triggers Its Own Destruction

HIP 67522 b can’t stop blasting itself in the face with stellar flares, a type of magnetic interaction that scientists have spent decades looking for.