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A Big Asteroid With its Own Moon is Passing By. Here's How to Spot It
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A big asteroid with its own moon is passing by. Here's how to spot it [cnet.com]
A "potentially hazardous" asteroid and its smaller sidekick are zipping by Earth Saturday, and both amateur and professional astronomers are checking out the rare sight.
The unnamed space rock designated as Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 [nasa.gov] is a binary system, meaning it's composed of one large asteroid orbited by a smaller moon. The larger half of the duo is nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) wide, while its smaller satellite is about a third of a mile wide (0.5 kilometers). The asteroid was first discovered 20 years ago, and its latest close approach comes May 25 at 4:05 p.m. PT.
The European Space Agency released [esa.int] a brief animation of the approaching system captured from an observatory on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean on May 9.
If you have access to a telescope at least 8 inches in diameter, you might be able to catch it as it passes us and starts to make its way back out to deep space. EarthSky has charts and tips [earthsky.org] for backyard observers, and TheSkyLive is tracking the system's movements [theskylive.com] in near real time.
While its serious size has earned 1999 KW4 the title "potentially hazardous [cnet.com]," it'll clear Earth this year at a very safe distance of 3,219,955 miles (5,182,015 kilometers). This will be the second closest approach it's made in the past two decades, and the nearest it'll come to our planet until 2036. It'll also be by far the largest object to come within about 20 lunar distances (4,647,790 miles or 7,479,894 kilometers) of us this year.
The Las Cumbres Observatory [asteroidtracker.lco.global] describes the main asteroid in the system as "slightly squashed at the poles and with a mountain ridge around the equator, which runs all the way around the asteroid. This ridge gives the primary an appearance similar to a walnut or a spinning top."
Some of the world's largest telescopes, including the massive Arecibo radio observatory [naic.edu] on Puerto Rico, will observe 1999 KW4 to get more data on both rocks and the separation between them.
The system is moving fast, at 48,123 miles per hour (77,446 kilometers per hour), which may make it easier for amateur observers to get a look at it.
Originally published April 23.
Update, May 21:Adds details about Friday's flyby.
Update, May 24:Adds details about how to spot the asteroid fly by.How families are giving a fantastic trip to loved ones in hospice [cnet.com]: "How is heaven going to be better than that?"
NASA finds space rock Ultima Thule is two bodies in an eternal hug [cnet.com]: The cold, tiny world provides a glimpse at the earliest days of our solar system.
