[meteorite-list] NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid 2005 YU55 Flyby

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:16:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201110262116.p9QLGes3012036_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-332

NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 26, 2011

NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the
agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock
safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8.
Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter)
asteroid as a science target of opportunity - allowing instruments on
"spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass.

Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m.
local time (PDT) on Nov. 4, using the massive 70-meter (230-foot) Deep
Space Network antenna, and last for about two hours. The asteroid will
continue to be tracked by Goldstone for at least four hours each day
from Nov. 6 through Nov. 10. Radar observations from the Arecibo
Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin on Nov. 8, the same
day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.
 
The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of
closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600
kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth. The
gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect
on anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides or tectonic
plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to
the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with
Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200
years.

During tracking, scientists will use the Goldstone and Arecibo antennas
to bounce radio waves off the space rock. Radar echoes returned from
2005 YU55 will be collected and analyzed. NASA scientists hope to obtain
images of the asteroid from Goldstone as fine as about 7 feet (2 meters)
per pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about the asteroid's
surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties (see
"Radar Love" - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-00a ).

Arecibo radar observations of asteroid 2005 YU55 made in 2010 show it to
be approximately spherical in shape. It is slowly spinning, with a
rotation period of about 18 hours. The asteroid's surface is darker than
charcoal at optical wavelengths. Amateur astronomers who want to get a
glimpse at YU55 will need a telescope with an aperture of 6 inches (15
centimeters) or larger.

The last time a space rock as big came as close to Earth was in 1976,
although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next
known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028.
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.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 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 .

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

2011-332
Received on Wed 26 Oct 2011 05:16:40 PM PDT