E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSWatch a six-frame video showing the spin of asteroid 2005 YU55 on Nov. 7 as it closed in for an encounter with Earth. The radar imagery was produced by NASA's Goldstone radio telescope.
Astronomers watched the asteroid 2005 YU55 spin as it zoomed harmlessly past Earth, and everybody else was looking over their shoulders. You can expect to see a huge pile of pictures now that the coal-dark space rock has passed by.
Even before the closest pass, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided a six-frame "movie" based on radar data acquired by the Goldstone radio telescope on Monday. This sequence was captured from a distance of 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers).
The closest approach to Earth came at 6:28 p.m. ET Tuesday, when the quarter-mile-wide (400-meter-wide) asteroid slipped just barely within the orbit of the moon at a distance of 198,000 miles (319,000 kilometers). YU55 is due to come closest to the moon at 2:14 a.m. ET Wednesday, NASA said.
Neither the moon nor Earth was at risk during this flyby, but the information gathered this time around could help astronomers know what they're dealing with during potentially riskier encounters.
Here's a parting shot of YU55 from the 25-inch telescope at the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts, which tracked the asteroid as it swept past at 29,000 mph:
Clay Center Observatory
The speck near the center of this image is 2005 YU55 at the time of closest approach. The bright streaks are background stars.
In a Twitter update, NASA said that YU55 will make its next Earth flyby in 2015, "but at a greater distance than today." Today's encounter wasn't close enough to perturb the near-Earth asteroid's orbit, but experts are wondering whether a close flyby of Venus in 2029 will change its orbital path slightly.
Even if that Venus encounter does cause a change, Earth is in no danger from this particular space rock, at least for the next 100 years or so. Which is a good thing. If an object the size of YU55 were to hit land, experts say it would blast a 4-mile-wide, 1,700-foot-deep crater and set off a 7.0 earthquake. If it hit at sea, it would create a catastrophic tsunami with 70-foot-high waves.
NBC's George Lewis reports on asteroid 2005 YU55's flyby.
The last time an asteroid as big as YU55 came this close was in 1976, and the next time will be in 2028 — or could it be sooner? Scientists recently estimated that thousands of asteroids around the size of YU55 remain to be discovered, so learning about this rock's composition and motion could help us deal with many other rocks to come.
YU55 is particularly interesting because it has a high carbon content, which makes it coal-black. Such carbonaceous chondrites have been found to contain amino acids, and may have played a role in the origin of life on Earth. NASA's Osiris-Rex mission, due for launch in 2016, will target a carbonaceous asteroid called 1999 RQ36 and try to bring a sample back to Earth for study.
NASA's current space vision calls for sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid sometime in the mid-2020s, and the head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program, Don Yeomans, said that if he got the chance to decide the destination, he'd pick a carbon-bearing rock like YU55.
"This would be an ideal object," he told The Associated Press.
Still more about the encounter:
- Your guide to the asteroid encounter
- How to save our planet from a killer asteroid
- Could the asteroid destroy the moon? (No)
- Why radar's the best for tracking near-Earth objects
- Interactive: Close encounters of the asteroid kind
Correction for 3:45 p.m. ET: I originally wrote that the Clay Center Observatory's telescope was a 15-incher, but it's actually a 25-incher.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or following the Cosmic Log Google+ page. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
What are the streaks in the streaming video? The pinpoints I assume are objects very far away (such as other planets in the solar system; stars). Could the streaks be things passing in front of the telescope close or in the earth's atmosphere - micrometeors, even debris such as leaves in the lower atmosphere slightly illuminated by local light sources? I notice the streaks are all going in the same direction too.
The streaks are stars. The camera is tracking the asteroid which is moving different from the field of starts behind it.
The streaks are ass-roids.
They brought back Bevis and Butthead - I need an intervention.
so much for my preaching self control 8o)
Folks:
This space rock looks a lot like Bruce Willis, which is fitting since he was in that movie Armageddon, right? Since this thing is going to be coming back maybe we should name it Bruce. We could call it Billy Bob or Ben, but it looks more like Bruce, in fact if you squint your eyes you can almost see him!
Cheers.
Drainbramage is the best, streaks are "ass-roids"
Sciences should be about fact, not fiction. Still, all they ever present are streaks in the sky.
Sleuths (fictional Disney charakter)
We're all gonna die........ what? The asteroid has already past? Are you sure? I though that Harold Camping said that the Earth was gonna end today..... that was two weeks ago?! What about the Mayan thing? Not till next year.... Well where is the Apocalypse that was promised? It was what...? Overzealous religious figures looking for their 15 minutes. Why would they do that?
DVD sales.
That was baby roid, Papa roid is coming right behind him.....
To get into young girl's pants, of course.
I believe the main dot is actually the asteroid, and the streaks are anything else visible in the background against which YU55 is moving, so, prominent stars or planets ... I don't know what else should be visible in that direction. Actually if we're looking "up" from the plane of the solar system, there wouldn't be any planets there, just stars. ISTM they're trying to keep their "eye" on the asteroid, versus giving us a view of it "shooting" across the screen and out of view ... which would impress for about that long. They're a science class, so they're taking pictures of the asteroid thru their 'scope, too, according to their website.
I almost suspect some of the other specks were dust on the optics...
Hi Alan Boyle,
72 hours ago the news was that an Asteroid will hit Earth!
Now you post a message that the Asteroid zipped by harmlessly. I'm not sure what to belief any more, you have the best equipment and astronomical knowledge, but instead of telling us more about an extra solar planet which is already brighter than Venus, you talk about a speck of dust flying by in the visinity of the Moon.
I have only one message, get your facts straight for the people who belief in you.
Quantum mystery
Paul J. Linke,
A greater mystery is how do people who think they can get scientific 'news' from supermarket tabloids cross busy streets without getting killed?
No article in any serious publication claimed this asteroid would hit the earth. I read several that mentioned what type of damage an asteroid of this size would cause IF it hit the earth, but from the day it was discovered, this one's trajectory was plotted and scientists the world over announced it would present no danger.
The continuing, nonsensical hysteria over the non-existent planet Nibiru is another example of tabloid science. The original (circa 1950s) proposition for this 'invisible' planet was debunked shortly after it was first suggested. There is no such animal.
Fables like Nibiru, the Bermuda Triangle and of course Ancient Astronauts have very little basis in real science. They are usually the product of sensationalist writers who see themselves as amature scentific sleuths. What they really want is to sell books.
They see an unanswered question as an opportunity to make money by convincing gullible people there is a conspiracy by people who have the answer but who want to keep it a secret. Science doesn't work thay way.
If there was a scientist anywhere on earth who had real, verifiable evidence for any of these 'mysteries' you can bet they would publish immediately and then they would be hurrying to get fitted for a tuxedo to wear to the Nobel Prize Awards Convention.
Clap Clap Clap! good answer!
Although you have to admit those "ancient landing strips" are pretty cool looking! :) for the time they were made!
Kevin MC - 408868
Thanks for your reply, it was everything I expected!
I don't know why, but you have to go out more often, because something is missing in your life.
Is everything happening right now because of HAARP or is there actually something we try to ignore at all cost.
amature scentific sleuths
Sleuths
We won't be lucky one of these days.
Just to be here we have already been very lucky. :)
Depends on whose head it lands! May actually be a blessing from above
Hello and goodbye old friend
Are you sure that wasn't the ultrasound of my little brother??
That's funny and it could have been your bro-- I thought it was the Enterprise at a distance:)
THANKS for the warning in advance..of course if it was going to hit earth you will tell us in advance of course?
Since you decided its no threat to earth ..you're posting this now..great idea (after it passed).
12-21-2011
mike, they've been talking about this asteroid for days, where have you been?
They've been talking alot about this for weeks not just days, I first heard of it quite a few months ago. Really, where have you been mike?
Mitchell
much information here neo. jpl. nasa. gov/ risk (without the spaces obviously). They knew this was going to miss because they are currently tracking plenty of other Near Earth Asteroids, well all that we know about.
Decepticons!
Fox; can I get Scully's phone number?
"That's no asteroid; it's a space station!"
"Save us, Al-Gore Kenobi. You're our only hope."
Keep your popcorn in your bag --- phew! that was close! 3D!
Interesting comments, of course if it were to hit the earth I doubt there would have been many comedians posting jokes
how correct you are!
4 mile wide and 1700 ft deep crater, that would make it roughly 10-20 megatons. it would be very bad if it hit a city or town, but not a large-scale disaster if it hit an uninhabited area.
Danwill, you seriously underestimate that...
Mama Mia
no one noticed the martian space craft that was drafting off it...it's just like nascar out there i tell ya...
shhhh!, that was my experimental space vehicle!
Our scientists should attach a space probe to the asteriod and they could gather data and a free ride to where it goes
Good idea. That's out of the box thinking. NASA could save millions of our dollars.
Very cool to have something like this come so close to earth, though frankly I'm more concerned with the threats posed by volcanos or biological warfare than that of asteroids.
I'd be real curious as to just how many peope here on Earth with the capability of keeping an eye on something this catastrophic clicked on MSN, looked at the top stories, but instead of viewing this story went directly to the latest news on Justin Biebers paternity suit or Kim Kardashians divorce update. Maybe I'm crazy but when I hear the words "asteroid" in the same sentence as " traveling between the moon and Earth" I tend to focus a little more attention as the most important news of the day, maybe even my entire lifetime....
I definitely must agree with you Jimmeez. I'm not sure how many people even want real news these days. Could it be that people in general are just numb?
I second that S/B, but instead of using the word "numb" I would say "miss informed".
Highlighting "Asteroid", is it possible that it has a lot in common with "Android", and that we can expect a lot more from where that came from.
People avoid what they cannot understand, explain, or seemingly control. We can all understand an oversexed, spoiled teenager with a God complex and more money than God.....but realizing that all these things are continually happening and evolving, and that we as human beings can do very little to alter their course or change the outcome, particularly as by the time the images actually reach us hear on earth, alot of these events are really old news......sometimes older than the history of mankind, or even older than the earth itself. It is such a vast scale and overwhelming...and as such, people avoid it for the simple and mundane
What exactly is a "kim Kardashian" or a "Justin Beiber"? I havent watched TV in over 20 years but their names seem to be ever-present in our society. Did they find a cure for cancer or bring peace to the middle east? I am sure they had to do something that benifited the entire human race to warrant as much airtime as their names seem to be getting.
I think we lost it along the way, but this seems to be the norm for people who haven't watched TV in over 20 years, but they still like to have a say in whats happening right now. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work that way, therefore I come back to Kevin MC 40 8868 to highlight what he had to say. But then again I could be wrong, because the number behind the name looks very scientific.
Sleuth
Once again the "Diverters" save our earth from meteorite catastrophe! www.divertersmovie.com
Once again the "Diverters" save our earth from meteorite catastrophe! www.divertersmovie.com
Let it hit us. What could be worse than Obama?
AGREE ! GREAT RESPONSE !
david barron
SFValley
barron4cc.com
nope, it was a brainless response.
It not hitting us and Obama being re-elected, along with his cast of ventriloquist puppets on stage on Capital Hill.
That pic looks like the back of Obama's head.
Drummer, It looks like your momma's nut-sack.
Could it be possible to disitegrate it with a laser- I ponder.
the ones that make the jokes are the ones that are the most afraid that something like this could happen and they wouldn't know what to do
They will eventually stick their heads between their legs.......
Hard to do when your head is already in the sand
yay-ya.. I hope someone gets a shot of it on front of the moon!
All of you Obama haters are a freak of nature!
Le Freak is Chic!
30 seconds of advertisement, before presenting 30 seconds of 'public domain' footage, is supposed to give me a 'warm fuzzy feeling' about the advertiser? You guys aren't consumers - you don't 'get it'...
I pay for your internet service. I don't give a damn about Justin, Kim or whomever your well-paid advisors think I care about. I AM YOUR CUSTOMER - ask me what I want and quit subjecting me to the tripe you think I may be interested in. You have reduced your paying customers to the lowest denominator.
I wish Kim K, Linsey and Octamom would all get porn jobs and stay busy in bed.
Ha! Giggity!
Good article, glad to hear the orbit did not change. It would be nice if we could hook up with it in 2015.
Always hate when you anticipate these "visible to the naked eye" events, and then get clouds and storms that prohibit you from viewing any of it.
Sue,
It may make you feel a little better to know, according to yesterday's Cosmic Log this object is not visible to the naked eye. It only shines at magnitude 11... the naked eye threshold is 6.5... the higher the number the dimmer the object. You'd need at least a 6'' telescope.
Kevin keeps surprising me, he actually reveals that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Because it all comes from the same department, only from different people who don't like each other!
But I have to admit that I haven't had that much fun in a long time.
Sleuth
Paul,
What you reveal is the only fun you ever have is with your hands. What we learn from you is your mind is a riddle wrapped in an enigma... you're like the Sphinx, oh no I'm sorry, what I meant to say is you're a sphincter.
But then again even the average sphincter would understand what, "...dust on the optics." means, so on second thought, you're not there yet.
Feel free to try again coherently, after you complete your English As A Second Language Course.