[meteorite-list] Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:07:05 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201306062307.r56N757R019531_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-193

Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 06, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide
(70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have
released a second, longer, more refined movie clip of asteroid 1998 QE2
and its moon. The 55 individual images used in the movie were generated
from data collected at Goldstone on June 1, 2013.

Each of the individual images obtained on June 1, 2013, required about
five minutes of data collection by the Goldstone radar. At the time of
the observations that day, asteroid 1998 QE2 was about 3.75 million
miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth. The resolution is about 125
feet (38 meters) per pixel.

With additional radar images and time for analysis, NASA scientists have
been able to refine their estimates of the asteroid's size and rotation.
The data indicate the main, or primary body, is approximately 1.9 miles
(3 kilometers) in diameter and has a rotation period of about five hours.

The asteroid's satellite, or moon, is approximately 2,000 feet (600
meters) wide, has an elongated appearance, and completes a revolution
around its host body about once every 32 hours. At any point during its
orbit, the maximum distance between the primary body and moon is about 4
miles (6.4 kilometers). Similar to our moon, which always points the
same "face" at Earth, the asteroid's satellite appears to always show
the same portion of its surface to the primary asteroid. This is called
"synchronous rotation."

1998 QE2 is one of the slowest (with respect to its rotation) and
largest binaries that have been observed by planetary radar. In the
near-Earth population, about 16 percent of asteroids that are about 655
feet (200 meters) or larger are binary or triple systems.

The trajectory of asteroid 1998 QE2 is well understood. The closest
approach of the asteroid occurred on May 31 at 1:59 p.m. PDT (4:59 p.m.
EDT / 20:59 UTC), when the asteroid got no closer than about 3.6 million
miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between
Earth and the moon. This was the closest approach the asteroid will make
to Earth for at least the next two centuries.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 was discovered on Aug. 19, 1998, by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR)
program near Socorro, N.M.

Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape,
rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for
improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of
asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid
orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't
available.

NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our
home planet from them. In fact, the US has the most robust and
productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth
objects (NEOs). To date, U.S. assets have discovered over 98 percent of
the known NEOs.

In 2012, the NEO budget was increased from $6 million to $20 million.
Literally dozens of people are involved with some aspect of NEO research
across NASA and its centers. Moreover, there are many more people
involved in researching and understanding the nature of asteroids and
comets, including those objects that come close to Earth, plus those who
are trying to find and track them in the first place.

In addition to 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 track and better understand these objects, often with grants,
interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington,
manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and
comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. 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.

In 2016, NASA will launch a robotic probe to one of the most potentially
hazardous of the known NEOs. The OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid (101955)
Bennu will be a pathfinder for future spacecraft designed to perform
reconnaissance on any newly-discovered threatening objects. Aside from
monitoring potential threats, the study of asteroids and comets enables
a valuable opportunity to learn more about the origins of our solar
system, the source of water on Earth, and even the origin of organic
molecules that led to the development of life.

NASA recently announced development of a first-ever mission to identify,
capture and relocate an asteroid for human exploration. Using
game-changing technologies, this mission would mark an unprecedented
technological achievement that raises the bar of what humans can do in
space. Capturing and redirecting an asteroid will integrate the best of
NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draw
on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ , http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via
Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch .

More information about asteroid radar research is at:
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

More information about the Deep Space Network is at:
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2013-193
Received on Thu 06 Jun 2013 07:07:05 PM PDT