[meteorite-list] Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:23:44 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303182323.r2INNiLG010768_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-101

Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 18, 2013

A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10,
2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space
Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about
693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar
distances.

The radar imagery suggests the irregularly shaped object is at least 130
feet (40 meters) wide. The 18 radar images were taken over a span of 1.3
hours. During that interval, the asteroid completed only a fraction of
one rotation, suggesting that it rotates once every few hours.

The radar observations were led by scientists Marina Brozovic and Lance
Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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 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. 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

2013-101
Received on Mon 18 Mar 2013 07:23:44 PM PDT