[meteorite-list] NASA Releases Updated Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:01:48 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201111140401.pAE41m6I008932_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-351

NASA Releases Updated Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 11, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide
(70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have
released a second, longer, and more refined, movie clip of asteroid 2005
YU55. The images were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Nov.
7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m.
EST).

The movie clip can be found at: http://1.usa.gov/YU55 .

Each of the 28 frames required 20 minutes of data collection by the
Goldstone radar. At the time of the observations, 2005 YU55 was
approximately 860,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) from Earth. The
resolution is about 13 feet (4 meters) per pixel. 2005 YU55 takes
approximately 18 hours to complete one rotation, so the rotation in the
movie appears much more rapid than the actual asteroid rotation speed.

The Goldstone observations utilized a new system to obtain images with a
resolution of 4 meters, which is five times finer than the highest
resolution previously possible at Goldstone.

"The encounter with 2005 YU55 has produced an enormous amount of data
that is still being processed." said radar astronomer Lance Benner, the
principal investigator for the 2005 YU55 Goldstone observations, from
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The sequence of
images we obtained shows unprecedented fine-scale detail on this
asteroid, which is comparable in size to the Empire State Building. The
Goldstone images show evidence for concavities, a ridge near the
asteroid's equator, and numerous features that may be large boulders."

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. Although the
asteroid is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of
Earth, (and Venus and Mars), 2005 YU55's 2011 encounter with Earth was
the closest for at least the last 200 years.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing
close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The
Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard,"
discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their
orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at
http://twitter.com/#!/AsteroidWatch . More information about asteroid
radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ . More information about
the Deep Space Network is at: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington

2011-351
Received on Sun 13 Nov 2011 11:01:48 PM PST