Using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in Mojave Desert, California, astronomers have captured radar images of the rotating, two-lobed asteroid 2014 JO25, just as the object is preparing to make a flyby of the Earth-Moon system.
This composite of 30 images of the asteroid 2014 JO25 was generated with radar data collected using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar. The radar images were collected on April 18, 2017. At the time, 2014 JO25 was 1.9 million miles (3 million km) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR.
“2014 JO25 has a contact binary structure — two lobes connected by a neck-like region,” said Dr. Shantanu Naidu, a scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who led the Goldstone observations.
“The images show flat facets, concavities and angular topography.”
“The largest of the asteroid’s two lobes is estimated to be 2,000 feet (620 m) across,” Dr. Naidu said.
2014 JO25 was discovered in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey.
The asteroid will fly safely past Earth today, April 19, at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km), or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Although there is no possibility for this object to collide with Earth, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size.
2014 JO25 will approach Earth from the direction of the Sun and will become visible in the night sky after April 19.
It is predicted to brighten to about magnitude 11, when it could be visible in small optical telescopes for one or two nights before it fades as the distance from Earth rapidly increases.
The encounter is the closest 2014 JO25 will have come to Earth in 400 years and will be its closest approach for at least the next 500 years.
The next known encounter of an asteroid of comparable size will occur in 2027 when the 2,625-foot-wide (800 m) asteroid 1999 AN10 will fly by at one lunar distance, about 236,000 miles (380,000 km).
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This article is based on a press-release from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
