[meteorite-list] Radar Images of Asteroid 2005 WK

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 16:08:35 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201308152308.r7FN8ZHD006814_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-254

Radar Images of Asteroid 2005 WK4
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 15, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid
2005 WK4 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter)
Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2013.

The asteroid is between 660 and 980 feet (200 and 300 meters) in
diameter; it has a rounded and slightly asymmetric shape. As it rotates,
a number of features are evident that suggest the presence of some flat
regions and a bulge near the equator.

The radar observations of 2005 WK4 were led by scientist Lance Benner of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The data were
obtained between 12:40 and 7:10 a.m. PDT (3:40 and 10:10 a.m. EDT). At
the time of the observations, the asteroid's distance was about 1.93
million miles (3.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 8.2 lunar
distances away. The data were obtained over an interval of 6.5 hours as
the asteroid completed about 2.4 rotations. The resolution is 12 feet
(3.75 meters) per pixel.

Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape,
rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for
improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of
asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid
orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't
available.

NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our
home planet from them. In fact, the United States has the most robust
and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth
objects. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of
the known near-Earth Objects.

In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it
also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based
astronomers, and space science institutes across the country that are
working to track and understand these objects better, often with grants,
interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA.

In 2016, NASA will launch a robotic probe to one of the most potentially
hazardous of the known near-Earth objects. The OSIRIS-REx mission to
asteroid (101955) Bennu will be a pathfinder for future spacecraft
designed to perform reconnaissance on any newly discovered threatening
objects. Aside from monitoring potential threats, the study of asteroids
and comets enables a valuable opportunity to learn more about the
origins of our solar system, the source of water on Earth, and even the
origin of organic molecules that led to the development of life.

NASA recently announced development of a first-ever mission to identify,
capture and relocate an asteroid for human exploration. Using
game-changing technologies, this mission would mark an unprecedented
technological achievement that raises the bar of what humans can do in
space.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington,
manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and
comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. 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 available at:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ , http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via
Twitter at http://www.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

2013-254
Received on Thu 15 Aug 2013 07:08:35 PM PDT