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Space & Astronomy

Large asteroid Yu55 to pass close to Earth

By T.K. Randall
November 7, 2011 · Comment icon 90 comments

Image Credit: NASA
The 400m wide asteroid will pass by the closest a tracked object of its size has ever done before.
Due to pass us on November 8th, the asteroid will come within 198,000 miles and pass inside the moon's orbit. Scientists however believe the asteroid won't collide with the Earth and that there is only a 1 in 10 million chance it will strike within the next 100 years.

"Because this one is coming in so close we'll be able to get more radar observations, which will give us a detailed surface map, and be able to get more of a chemical signature on the minerals it's made up from," said Kevin Yates of the Near Earth Objects Information Centre.
Astronomers around the world have readied their telescopes to catch a glimpse of a speeding ball of rock that will hurtle past the Earth on Tuesday night.


Source: Guardian Unlimited | Comments (90)

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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #81 Posted by bison 14 years ago
Release of new information on YU55 seems to be rather slow. Four days have passed without any new images being offered. I've not found any results made public yet, either, about the chemical composition of the object. Because of its very dark color, literally as dark as coal, it was tentatively given a C classification, which denotes mineral grains seeded with a good deal of carbon. Spectroscopists wanted to take advantage of its very close approach to confirm this and obtain more details of the object's chemistry. Still no further explanation of what was so puzzling about the 'puzzling struct... [More]
Comment icon #82 Posted by Archosaur 14 years ago
*Holds up sign* "Dinosaurs Had No Space Program"
Comment icon #83 Posted by Widdekind 14 years ago
Our earth has had several similar "close calls", relatively recently. If "Grand-Mother-Cosmos" serves up some "curve balls", why not "step up to the plate", and "take a swing", i.e. practice "nudging" the asteroids & comets, with "nukes" ? Given our upcoming "big game", with Apophis, in 2029 & 2037, if it does thread through the 'key hole', and threaten to impact our planet, then that would be a bad time to begin "practicing", when "the game was already live".
Comment icon #84 Posted by bison 14 years ago
We now have a competing diameter figure for YU55, from the Herschel Space Observatory. It indicates 310 or 340 meters, depending on which side of the object they were looking at. This contradicts the figure of 400 meters from Arecibo. The Herschel works in the infrared range, rather than radio, as Arecibo does. Both measurements are thought to be accurate, yet they differ substantially. I wonder if YU55 could be an unexpectedly good reflector of radio waves, and if this caused an erroneously high diameter to be reported. Objects high in metal content yield more conspicuous radar returns than d... [More]
Comment icon #85 Posted by sean6 14 years ago
here's another one on the way. funny how n.a.s.a just saw this one on the 11-18-2011, and will fly pass on 11-24-2011 Newly Discovered NEO Asteroid 2011 WP4 to Graze Earth on November 24 2011 On Thanksgiving Day, you may want to give thanks for the fact that we (hopefully) haven’t all been smashed to bits. NASA has just discovered a new Near-Earth Object (NEO), dubbed Asteroid 2011 WP4 which will graze our planet on Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. http://www.blippitt.com/newly-discovered-neo-asteroid-2011-wp4-to-graze-earth-on-november-24-2011-video/ what's up what the asteroids of late? w... [More]
Comment icon #86 Posted by bison 14 years ago
Asteroid 2011 WP4 will come within about 1 & 1/2 times the distance of the Moon, thus about twice the distance from Earth as 2005 YU55 did. I keep track of all predicted asteroid encounters within about 2,400,000 miles. ( One never knows what sort of object may one day approach Earth! ) They *do* sometimes seem to come in bursts. This could be the result of asteroids colliding with one another, producing a number of fragments in similar orbits. WP4 is thought to be from 12 to 27 meters in diameter, so about 1/20 the size, and ~ 1/8000 the mass of YU55.
Comment icon #87 Posted by bison 14 years ago
I'm glad to report that asteroid 2011 WP4 passed by Earth uneventfully, and as predicted, yesterday. It seems that, for technical reasons having to do with the intricacies of radar astronomy, an image resolution of better than ~ 4 meters per pixel, such as currently seen, can not be expected for 2005 YU55. I had assumed, on general principles, that images from the closest approach of about 200,000 miles would be markedly clearer than those taken at 860,000 miles, which is the distance of the best images on display. Even so, these are the best and clearest images of an Earth-approaching asteroi... [More]
Comment icon #88 Posted by bison 14 years ago
The fast-rotating asteroids referred to above appear to be almost to the point of tearing themselves to pieces with their own centrifugal force. That an object like YU55, which spins at 1/5 or 1/6 the speed of these, should find itself in the same situation appears very unlikely. If, as seems to be the case, YU 55 has an equatorial ridge and a spheroidal shape, its resemblance to the centrifugally disrupted asteroids is very probably coincidental. If so, another explanation for its peculiar shape must be sought.
Comment icon #89 Posted by psyche101 14 years ago
I'm glad to report that asteroid 2011 WP4 passed by Earth uneventfully, and as predicted, yesterday. Very uneventfully in Australia. 10AM. Bah. WHo can look at it at that time of day. All these millions of years in the making for a final fizzer. Bah!
Comment icon #90 Posted by bison 14 years ago
A new interview with one of the scientists involved in the radar imaging of YU55. Several points of interest. That an equatorial ridge is unexpected, even unexplainable on an object with such slow rotation is confirmed. The apparent ridge is represented by the thin, very light colored line, not by the grey area above it in the image. That this line is so thin, regular, and well-defined seems to add to its mystery. There are apparently data for additional images. Due to a combination of proprietary and technical issues, it may be some time before these are released. The peculiar promontory allu... [More]
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