Astroblog: Latest Radar Images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 from Goldstone

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Latest Radar Images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 from Goldstone

This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was taken on November 7, 2011 by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California.

With the updated orbital elements from these observation, the asteroid is still on track to zip harmlessly past Earth and the Moon.

You can read the full press release here.

Labels: asteroids, NEO

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 1:54 pm

Comments:

It's a terrible image of the asteroid. Very strange seen as how Nasa and Hubble have perfectly great photos of other asteroids and space in general. Something does not add up to me? You would think they would be able to have a clear good shot in this day and age of it.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:19 am

It's only a radar image, like ultrasound image taken in hospital. I think there will be new pictures in following days. It would take a long time to collect enough data and calculate a good image. One reason for bad images is that the asteroid is darker than charcoal.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:01 am

Not shiny...good! May be stone, not iron. Most likely huge amount of data bieng processed right now. A flyby that we can anylize is a big step for us.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:18 am

Ian:

I believe that image was taken at a range of 800,000 + Miles. Much higher resolution images were taken; they just haven't been released yet.

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:38 am

G'Day Anon

Yes, I know. the one I showed was the latest released at the time of writing. Everyone is waiting with bayed breath for the full Goldstone and Aricebo series, as well as cleaned up versions of the Keck IR images.

I keep checking the web, if you see them before me let me know.

# posted by