Hoping to See Asteroid 2005 YU55? There's an App for That!

By Nancy Atkinson - November 7, 2011 at 10:44 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Starmap is an astronomy/planetarium app for the iPhone and iPad. A companion app, called Spacemap is an extended orrery that lets you view the phases, motions, and positions of items in the Universe all from your iPad. If you're hoping to track down Asteroid 2005 YU55 as it comes close to Earth on Nov. 8, you might want to check out both Starmap and Starmap. You can see this asteroid in both apps, but Spacemap is the only application available in the iTunes store that displays 2005 YU55's orbit in 3D animation.

UPDATE:

The contest is now closed and the winners have been notified.

Want to win a copy of either Starmap or Spacemap? Universe Today has a two copies of each to give away to the first four readers to answer this question correctly:

What year was the last time an asteroid as big as 2005 YU55 passed by Earth?

Answer in the comment section, and indicate which app you'd like. We have two of each to give away. First four commenters to answer correctly wins. Make sure your contact info on Disqus is correct, as that is you'll be contacted.

If you're not a winner, you might want to

check out Starmap and Spacemap,

as they are now 50% off, for a limited time.

Starmap Pro 2.3.2 in iTunes

, and

Spacemap 1.1 in iTunes

.

Starmap creator Frederic Descamps is a professional astronomer.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com