[meteorite-list] Giant Telescopes Pair Up to Image Near-Earth Asteroid 2014 HQ124

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 11:57:24 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201406121857.s5CIvO0d017801_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-186

Giant Telescopes Pair Up to Image Near-Earth Asteroid
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 12, 2014

[Image]
Radar images of Asteroid 2014 HQ124 NASA scientists used Earth-based
radar to produce these sharp views - an image montage and a movie
sequence -- of the asteroid designated '2014 HQ124' on June 8, 2014.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF

NASA scientists using Earth-based radar have produced sharp views of a
recently discovered asteroid as it slid silently past our planet.
Captured on June 8, 2014, the new views of the object designated "2014
HQ124" are some of the most detailed radar images of a near-Earth
asteroid ever obtained.

An animation of the rotating asteroid and a collage of the images are
available at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1310

The radar observations were led by scientists Marina Brozovic and Lance
Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The
JPL researchers worked closely with Michael Nolan, Patrick Taylor, Ellen
Howell and Alessondra Springmann at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico
to plan and execute the observations.

According to Benner, 2014 HQ124 appears to be an elongated, irregular
object that is at least 1,200 feet (370 meters) wide on its long axis.
"This may be a double object, or 'contact binary,' consisting of two
objects that form a single asteroid with a lobed shape," he said. The
images reveal a wealth of other features, including a puzzling pointy
hill near the object's middle, on top as seen in the images.

The 21 radar images were taken over a span of four-and-a-half hours.
During that interval, the asteroid rotated a few degrees per frame,
suggesting its rotation period is slightly less than 24 hours.

At its closest approach to Earth on June 8, the asteroid came within
776,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers), or slightly more than three
times the distance to the moon. Scientists began observations of 2014
HQ124 shortly after the closest approach, when the asteroid was between
about 864,000 miles and 902,000 miles (1.39 million kilometers and 1.45
million kilometers) from Earth.

Each image in the collage and movie represents 10 minutes of data.

The new views show features as small as about 12 feet (3.75 meters)
wide. This is the highest resolution currently possible using scientific
radar antennas to produce images. Such sharp views for this asteroid
were made possible by linking together two giant radio telescopes to
enhance their capabilities.

To obtain the new views, researchers paired the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep
Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, with two other radio
telescopes, one at a time. Using this technique, the Goldstone antenna
beams a radar signal at an asteroid and the other antenna receives the
reflections. The technique dramatically improves the amount of detail
that can be seen in radar images.

To image 2014 HQ124, the researchers first paired the large Goldstone
antenna with the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo radio telescope in
Puerto Rico. They later paired the large Goldstone dish with a smaller
companion, a 112-foot (34-meter) antenna, located about 20 miles (32
kilometers) away.

A recent equipment upgrade at Arecibo enabled the two facilities to work
in tandem to obtain images with this fine level of detail for the first
time.

"By itself, the Goldstone antenna can obtain images that show features
as small as the width of a traffic lane on the highway," said Benner.
"With Arecibo now able to receive our highest-resolution Goldstone
signals, we can create a single system that improves the overall quality
of the images."

The first five images in the new sequence -- the top row in the collage
-- represent the data collected by Arecibo, and are 30 times brighter
than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own.

Scientists were fortunate to be able to make these radar observations at
all, as this particular asteroid was only recently discovered. NASA's
NEOWISE mission, a space telescope adapted for scouting the skies for
the infrared light emitted by asteroids and comets, first spotted the
space rock on April 23, 2014. Additional information about the
asteroid's discovery and its orbit was shared in a previous Web story
online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-178

For asteroids, as well as comets, radar is a powerful tool for studying
the objects' size, shape, rotation, surface features and orbits. Radar
measurements of asteroid distances and velocities enable researchers to
compute orbits much further into the future than if radar observations
were not available.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing
close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The
Near-Earth Object Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these
objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their orbits to
determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. To date,
U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth
objects.

Along with 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 find, track and understand these objects better, often with
grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA. In
addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur
astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid
orbits after they are found.

The contributions of JPL engineers Joseph Jao and Clement Lee were
critical to the successful execution of these observations.

Through its Asteroid Initiative, NASA is developing a first-ever mission
to identify, capture and redirect a near-Earth asteroid to a stable
orbit around the moon with a robotic spacecraft. Astronauts aboard an
Orion spacecraft, launched by a Space Launch System rocket, will explore
the asteroid in the 2020s, returning to Earth with samples. Experience
in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit through this Asteroid
Redirect Mission will help NASA test new systems and capabilities needed
to support future human missions to Mars. The Initiative also includes
an Asteroid Grand Challenge, which is seeking the best ideas to find all
asteroid threats to human populations and accelerate the work NASA
already is doing for planetary defense.

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

Twitter updates are at:

http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch

Preston Dyches 818-354-7013
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
preston.dyches at jpl.nasa.gov

2014-186
Received on Thu 12 Jun 2014 02:57:24 PM PDT