NASA’s Goldstone planetary radar system recently recorded two near-Earth asteroids, 2024 MK and 2011 UL21, passing by our planet. Perhaps a little worryingly, it was detected just 13 days before either one passed safely past. Soilbut scientists at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) assures us that it never posed a threat in Southern California, but the images they were able to collect were extremely informative.
“Neither near-Earth object had a risk of impacting our planet, but radar observations taken during these two close approaches will provide valuable application. planetary defense“There is information about these planets, including their sizes, orbits, rotations, surface details, and clues about their composition and formation,” the team said in a press release.
The Goldstone Solar System Radar is located in the desert near Barstow, California. Its 70-meter-tall (230-foot-tall) fully steerable antenna (DSS-14)—the only fully steerable radar in the world for high-resolution ranging and imaging—provides full-sky coverage and has been used to search for objects of interest. solar system For the last thirty years.
During this time, he managed to gather invaluable information about other planets. Mercury with Saturnand has supported numerous exploration missions, including the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the Hayabusa asteroid exploration. SOHO Recovery of the solar observatory, Lunar Prospector and Venus-To examine the Magellan effort.
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As seen this week, it has also been used to monitor and study near-Earth orbits. Asteroidshelps prevent potential impact hazards and identify targets for future exploration missions. Radar is a powerful tool for studying asteroid properties and orbits — the ground-based station transmits radio waves to the asteroids, then receives reflected signals back that scientists can use to glean relevant information. If an object’s “echo” is strong enough, radar imaging can achieve spatial resolution to identify features as fine as 10 meters (32 feet).
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On June 27, the radar system tracked asteroid 2011 UL21 as it passed by Earth at a distance of 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers). As its name suggests, the asteroid NASA It was discovered during the Catalina Sky Survey, which has been conducted by scientists in Tucson, Arizona, since 2011.
The object, about 1.6 kilometers (1.6 kilometers) across, was the first to come close enough to be imaged by a radar stationed on Earth, allowing scientists to determine that it was roughly spherical in shape and was accompanied by its own “sleep” orbiting about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the asteroid.
“About two-thirds of asteroids this size are thought to be binary systems, and their discovery is particularly important because we can use measurements of their relative positions to estimate their mutual orbits, masses, and densities, providing important information about how they may have formed,” said Lance Benner, JPL principal scientist who led the observations.
Although NASA scientists say 2011 UL21 is classified as potentially hazardous due to its size, calculations of the asteroid’s orbit suggest it will not pose a real threat in the near future.
Then, just two days later, another asteroid appeared. The same team observed asteroid 2024 MK passing by our planet at a distance of just 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers), a little more than three-quarters of the way moon and Earth. Close approaches like this are relatively rare, the team says, but provide valuable insights that would otherwise be hard to come by.
“This was an extraordinary opportunity to investigate the physical properties of a near-Earth asteroid and obtain detailed images of it,” Benner said.
2024 MK was first detected on June 16 by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Late Warning System (ATLAS) at the Sutherland Observatory in South Africa. “Its orbit was altered as it passed by Earth’s gravity, which reduced its orbital period by 3.3 years around it.” Sun “Approximately 24 days,” the team said in a press release.
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On June 29, scientists again transmitted radio waves to 2024 MK – but, timeInstead of DSS-14, Goldstone’s 114-foot (34-meter) DSS-13 antenna picked up the returning signal. “This ‘bistatic’ radar observation produced a detailed image of the asteroid’s surface, revealing depressions, ridges, and rocks about 30 feet (10 meters) wide,” they wrote.
About 500 feet (150 meters) wide, this asteroid appears long and angular with distinct flat and rounded regions. Although it too is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, calculations of its future movement suggest it does not pose a threat to our planet in the foreseeable future.