An asteroid about nine times the length of the Queen Elizabeth 2 will "sail" by earth this Friday. The asteroid is called 1998 QE2, though it isn't named after the cruise ship, and will safely pass by at about 3.6 million miles, or 15 times the distance between our planet and the moon.
And while the asteroid is not close enough to be of interest to scientists looking for hazardous celestial masses, it is large close enough for radar telescopes to detect---According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be an outstanding radar imaging target at Goldstone and Arecibo and we expect to obtain a series of high-resolution images that could reveal a wealth of surface features." said Lance Benner, a radar astronomer and the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The closest the asteroid will get to Earth will occur at about 2 p.m. PT, which is just about during rush hour, 5 p.m. ET.
"Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin. We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise," Benner said.
It's an important opportunity indeed, as 1998 QE2 will not be this close to Earth again for at least another two centuries. The asteroid was discovered in 1998, hence the preceding number, by the observers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program in New Mexico. Between May 30 and June 9, radar astronomers at the Goldstone and Arecibo observatories will be tracking and imaging the asteroid in detail, as the Goldstone telescope can obtain clear images down to objects 12 feet across from this distance.
Check back with LatinosPost Science for more information and features when they become available.
(Via MSN News)
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