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NASA Snaps New Photo of Incoming Asteroid

Posted by timothy on from the authorities-say-it-is-unarmed-and-not-dangerous dept.

astroengine writes "Wider than an aircraft carrier and darker than coal, asteroid 2005 YU55 is soaring at over 11 miles a second straight towards Earth and moon on its latest path through the inner solar system. This new radar image was acquired Nov. 7 by the 70-meter radio telescope at NASA's Deep Space Network in Goldstone, Calif., and shows the approaching space rock in unprecedented detail." Phil Plait has posted some information from NASA about just how they're doing the tricky job of tracking the asteroid.

15 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bullshit by Cornwallis · · Score: 2

    It just proves that asteroids are made up of perfectly shaped blocks.

  2. Re:Bullshit by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

    Are you telling me that this is all an elaborate Minecraft advertising stunt?

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  3. Wider than an aircraft carrier & darker than c by The+Grim+Reefer2 · · Score: 2

    ...Faster than a speeding bullet, able to level entire buildings in a single blow. ;-)

  4. From the article, about the pixels: by Superken7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article explains why the asteroid looks like a pixelated sprite taken from the era of Monkey Island.

    For those that didn't want to bother reading both articles and just wanted to have a look at the image but then thought "WTF" after having a look at it:

    "The individual pulses can be timed very accurately as well, so that the shape of the asteroid can be determined, too. If there is a bump on the asteroid, like a hill, then a pulse hitting that won’t travel quite as far as a pulse that hits a crater. It gets back sooner, and this can be measured. The spatial resolution of this method at the distance of YU 55 will be about 4 meters, so they’ll be able to make an image that’s about 100 pixels across of it."

    image: http://news.discovery.com/space/2011/11/07/asteroid-2005-yu55-new-825.jpg

  5. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We apologize for not getting you a magazine quality glossy of an essentially black object moving at 11 miles per second through the vastness of space nearly a million miles away. We are in a bit of a budget crunch.

    Sorry,
    NASA

  6. Re:Phantom Image. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

    I have a 4'x4' print of the Phantom's face on my wall.

    Yes, we know who the Phantom is in the West.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  7. Wow by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    soaring at over 11 miles a second straight towards Earth

    A bit sensationalist no? More accurate would be "not quite straight toward Earth" or "not toward Earth at all but at some point that passes close to Earth".

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Wow by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Probably, but this wouldn't be within arm's length.

      The Earth has a diameter of about 12,756 km. A human face (from tip of nose to back of head) is about 8 inches. (Yes, I actually measured mine.) The asteroid will pass no closer than 324,600km from the Earth. This gives us the equivalent "bullet distance to face" distance of 203.5 inches, or nearly 17 feet. If that's "arm's length", you have some very long arms! Remember, space is big. Mindbogglingly big. (Insert Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy quote here.)

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  8. That's no asteroid. by DontBlameCanada · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a space station.

  9. Re:Bullshit by Again · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't understand why they don't just send it to a crime scene investigators lab to have the image made crystal clear and so that we can view the asteroid at more angles.

  10. Why side-lit? by pz · · Score: 2

    I read the articles. I watched the video. But, I'm confused: why does the asteroid appear side-lit in the images?

    If we're imaging the asteroid based on radar that's transmitted from the Earth, and the asteroid is heading nearly directly toward us, then we should be able to see images of the asteroid nearly full face on, rather than it appearing like a crescent moon with illumination from the sun, right? The radar illumination is from a source that spatially coincides with the receiving apparatus, so the image should appear more like the full moon.

    What am I missing here?

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    1. Re:Why side-lit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Up in the image is earth-ward. The vertical axis is the pulse return delay, and the horizontal axis is doppler shift of the pulse return.

    2. Re:Why side-lit? by pz · · Score: 2

      Please mod the parent up, that's a remarkably informative reply, especially from an AC.

      The important part, if I understand the technique then, is not that we're painting the surface pixel by pixel, as one might expect for an image produced by scanning a focused beam across the asteroid surface to create a 2D image, and as I expected to see in the photo. Instead of a scanning beam, there's a single pulse that gets sent out with some impressively sophisticated processing on the echo allows that signal to be broken down by delay and doppler shift, and those two parameters map only approximately to a side-view relative to an Earth based observer.

      It also explains the suspiciously spherical view of the asteroid, and implies that if the asteroid were not spinning relative to the Earth, the technique would degenerate to a 1D image of average reflectivity at a given distance.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  11. Re:Goddamn Discovery Network by PPH · · Score: 2

    Yeah. Windows is coming to the maniframe and all they can find to whine about is one measly killer asteroid.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. It will hit OK. by wcrowe · · Score: 2

    Here in Oklahoma, in the last 24 hours, we've had tornadoes, floods, and another earthquake. I'm not liking the looks of this asteroid thing.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19