Asteroid 2005 YU55 Passes the Earth
Explanation:
Asteroid 2005 YU55 passed by the Earth yesterday, posing no danger.
The space rock,
estimated to be about 400 meters across, coasted by just inside the orbit of
Earth's Moon.
Although the passing of smaller rocks near the Earth is
not very unusual -- in fact small rocks from space strike
Earth daily -- a rock this large hasn't passed this close since 1976.
Were
YU55 to have struck land,
it might have caused a
magnitude seven
earthquake
and left a city-sized
crater.
A perhaps larger danger would have occurred were
YU55
to have struck the ocean and raised a large
tsunami.
The above
radar image was taken two days ago by the
Deep Space Network
radio telescope in
Goldstone,
California,
USA.
YU55
was discovered only in 2005, indicating that other
potentially hazardous asteroids might lurk
in
our Solar System currently undetected.
Objects like YU55 are hard to detect because they are so faint and
move so fast.
However, humanity's ability to scan the sky to detect, catalog, and analyze such
objects has
increased notably in recent years.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
