Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon

PASADENA, Calif. - Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have released a second, longer, more refined movie clip of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon. The 55 individual images used in the movie were generated from data collected at Goldstone on June 1, 2013.

Each of the individual images obtained on June 1, 2013, required about five minutes of data collection by the Goldstone radar. At the time of the observations that day, asteroid 1998 QE2 was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth. The resolution is about 125 feet (38 meters) per pixel.

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[Waspie_Dwarf]

Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon

Radar data depicting the asteroid's primary body. Its moon, or secondary body, is the bright dot ascending just to the left of image center.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

Source: JPL - Videos

[NatureBoff]

It's an interesting image, so thanks for posting. The wikipedia page gives some confusing reasons for the differences in albedo's of the two bodies.

The surface of 1998 QE₂ is covered with a sooty substance, suggesting that it might have previously been a comet that experienced a close encounter with the Sun.^[5] However, the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter (T_J=3.2) does not make it obvious whether 1998 QE₂ was ever a comet.^[3] The asteroid is optically dark with an albedo of 0.06, meaning it absorbs 94% of the light that hits it...

In radar images, the satellite appears brighter than 1998 QE₂ because it is rotating significantly more slowly, which compresses the radar return of the satellite along the Doppler axis. This makes the satellite appear narrow and bright compared to 1998 QE₂.^[7] Once the satellite's orbit is well determined, astronomers and astrophysicists will be able to determine the mass and density of 1998 QE₂.

In the talkpage section someone says:

The article says it's covered with a soot-like substance. Only one source I found says this while another one says that it's albedo makes it as reflective as soot. http://www.sen.com/N...id-sail-by.html Thoughts? -- RocketLauncher2 (talk) 16:49, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow, the article mentions at the bottom:

NASA is also developing a mission to capture a small asteroid and bring it into orbit around the Moon so that astronauts can later visit it.

Edited June 7, 2013 by RingFenceTheCity