NASA Captures Radar Images of Huge Asteroid Near Earth

NASA scientists captured detailed radar views of a huge asteroid as it whizzed by Earth earlier this month.

The new radar images show the asteroid 2005 WK4 as it passed Earth on Aug. 8 at a safe distance of 1.93 million miles (3.1 million kilometers), which is about 8.2 times the distance between Earth and the moon. The images revealed the large asteroid to be between 660 and 980 feet across (200 to 300 meters), NASA officials explained in a statement.

NASA captured the asteroid images by using the agency’s Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., a 230-foot (70 m) antenna that can be used to conduct radar astronomy as well as track spacecraft in deep space.

 

“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,” NASA officials said. “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.”

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NASA Captures Radar Images of Huge Asteroid Near Earth