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A mile-long asteroid set to pass safely by Earth on Friday appears to be bringing along a companion. Radar imagery showed that asteroid “1998 QE2″ is a binary asteroid, according to researchers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena.
About 16 percent of asteroids that are about 655 feet or larger are binary or triple systems, according to JPL.
Data shows the main body of the asteroid is approximately 1.7 miles in diameter and has a rotation period of less than four hours. Radar imagery also shows the space rock has several dark surface features that suggest large concavities.
The preliminary estimate for the size of the asteroid’s satellite, or moon, is approximately 2,000 feet wide, researchers said. The moon appears in JPL images as a small, bright object orbiting 1998 QE2.
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http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/05/30/nasa-radar-shows-near-earth-asteroid-bringing-its-own-moon/
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A gravitational slingshot will send an asteroid half the size of a football field skipping closer to the sun after a close encounter with Earth next week, report NASA scientists.
The asteroid, 2012 D14, will come within 17,100 miles of Earth on Feb. 15 at 2:24 p.m. ET, a record close-approach for an asteroid this size. And then we likely won't see it again for at least a century, after Earth's gravity slingshots the space rock onto a shorter orbit that takes it closer to the sun.
"No Earth impact is possible," said asteroid expert Donald Yeomans of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Instead, the 17,450 mile-per-hour close encounter will pass between the higher orbits of communication satellites and the lower orbits of navigational Global Positioning Satellites (GPS). Any impact with a satellite is, "highly unlikely," Yeomans says.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/02/07/nasa-asteroid-d14/1900387/
More reading:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/telecon20130207.html
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Some 22,000 chunks of space junk zip around the earth. On Saturday, six International Space Station astronauts scrambled for safety as a piece of a Russian satellite whizzed by.
The six earthlings – three Russians, two Americans, and a Dutchman – aboard the International Space Station were stirred from their slumber Saturday morning to jump into emergency escape pods, once again drawing into focus the growing dangers of hurtling space junk.
The astronauts, orbiting 200 miles above the planet, were told by ground control to scramble into two docked Soyuz spacecrafts in case a piece of a wrecked Russian satellite should smash into the ISS, which could have heavily damaged the platform as both objects were traveling at orbital speeds – 17,500 miles per hour. The emergency was called off after the chunk passed by at an approximate distance of nine miles – which in space terms is a near-miss.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0324/Astronauts-scramble-for-escape-pods-as-space-junk-threat-gets-serious
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Two tiny asteroids zipped close by Earth today (March 26), passing between our planet and the orbit of the moon, but posed no threat of impacting our world, NASA scientists say.
The two space rocks flew by Earth in rapid fire; one zoomed by early in the day while the second buzzed the planet at 1:09 p.m. EDT (1709 GMT), according to astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program.
"Both are very small (under 10 meters) and pose no risk," the scientists wrote in a Twitter update.
The first object, called asteroid 2012 FP35, came within 96,000 miles (154,000 km) of the Earth when it passed by earlier today, the scientists wrote. Asteroid 2012 FP35 is just under 30 feet (9 meters) wide, making it about the size of a tour bus.
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http://www.space.com/15043-small-asteroids-earth-close-shave.html
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A small asteroid about the size of a house made one cosmic leap past Earth Wednesday, just in time for leap day.
The newfound asteroid 2012 DS32 posed no chance of hitting our planet but made an evening pass to mark this special day for Earth, NASA scientists said.
"Happy Leap Day! Small asteroid 2012 DS32 will safely pass Earth at 7:36 p.m. EST," astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program wrote in a Twitter post. The Asteroid Watch program is part of the Near Earth Object office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The asteroid 2012 DS32 is about 61 feet (about 18.5 meters) across. At the nearest point, the asteroid zoomed within about 446,000 miles (717,767 kilometers) of the planet, which is slightly less than twice the distance between Earth and the moon. The average Earth-moon distance is about 238,000 miles (382,900 kilometers).
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46578872/ns/technology_and_science-space/
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