#binary asteroid

[siryl]

Illustration by Lynette Cook of the Trojan asteroids Patroclus and Menoetius, which orbit a common center of gravity.  The distant dots of Jupiter and the Galilean moons can be seen to the left.

[talesofdrunkennessandcruelty]

This Spectacularly Beautiful Object In Our Own Solar System Has Finally Been Identified

[newsdock]

NASA says chill out, there's no doomsday asteroid next month

Rumors of an Earth-shattering asteroid impact scheduled for September are blown off course by NASA applying science to the fear-mongering. http://dlvr.it/BvtWvs

[astronemma]

NASA Radar Reveals Asteroid Has Its Own Moon

 A sequence of radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 was obtained on the evening of May 29, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 15.6 lunar distances.

The radar imagery revealed that 1998 QE2 is a binary asteroid. In the near-Earth population, about 16 percent of asteroids that are about 655 feet (200 meters) or larger are binary or triple systems. Radar images suggest that the main body, or primary, is approximately 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) in diameter and has a rotation period of less than four hours. Also revealed in the radar imagery of 1998 QE2 are several dark surface features that suggest large concavities. The preliminary estimate for the size of the asteroid's satellite, or moon, is approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) wide. The radar collage covers a little bit more than two hours.

The radar observations were led by scientist Marina Brozovic of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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