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Goldstone radar snags images of asteroid 2013 ET

Date:
March 19, 2013
Source:
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Summary:
A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar distances.
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A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar distances.

The radar imagery suggests the irregularly shaped object is at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide. The 18 radar images were taken over a span of 1.3 hours. During that interval, the asteroid completed only a fraction of one rotation, suggesting that it rotates once every few hours.

The radar observations were led by scientists Marina Brozovic and Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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 detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

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.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/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.


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Materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


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NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Goldstone radar snags images of asteroid 2013 ET." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 March 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130319111054.htm>.
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2013, March 19). Goldstone radar snags images of asteroid 2013 ET. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130319111054.htm
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Goldstone radar snags images of asteroid 2013 ET." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130319111054.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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