Radar images of asteroid 2007 PA8 acquired on October 28, 29 and 30. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Gemini)
Take a good look at asteroid 2007 PA8 — over the past week it was making its closest pass of Earth for the next 200 years… and NASA’s 230-foot (70-meter) -wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California snapped its picture as it went by.
All right, maybe no “pictures” were “snapped”… 2007 PA8 is a small, dark body that only came within four million miles (6.5 million kilometers) today, Nov. 5 (0.043 AU, or 17 times the distance from Earth to the Moon). But the radar capabilities of the Deep Space Network antenna in California’s Mojave Desert can bounce radar off even the darkest asteroids, obtaining data that can be used to create a detailed portrait.
Although classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) by the IAU’s Minor Planet Center the trajectory of 2007 PA8 is well understood. It is not expected to pose any impact threat to Earth in the near or foreseeable future.
2007 PA8 was discovered by LINEAR on August 9, 2007.
Read more about asteroid radar imaging here, and find out more about asteroids at JPL’s Asteroid Watch site here.
Get more information on the known properties of 2007 PA8 here.
Source: NASA Solar System Exploration. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Gemini
On September 26th, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collided with the asteroid Dimorphos,…
Universe Today has had some fantastic discussions with researchers on the importance of studying impact…
Since its launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made some amazing…
Solar sails rely upon pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. Get the sail closer…
From its vantage point at the Sun-Earth L2 point, the ESA's Euclid spacecraft is measuring…
Fresh imagery from the Event Horizon Telescope traces the lines of powerful magnetic fields spiraling…