File:Asteroid 1994 KW4.jpg

Summary

Description

Pictures of a near-Earth binary asteroid system have been taken by astronomers using NASA's Goldstone radar telescope.

Images show a trail of a smaller component orbiting a larger object. This system was the third binary near-Earth asteroid pair revealed by radar, but it was the first time when scientists captured the complete orbit of one component around the other.

The image was taken when the asteroid came within five million kilometers of Earth (over 3 million miles) by the end of May 2001. It is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, because eventually its path through space could intersect Earth. However, the radar measurements, which are accurate to 15 meters

(about 49 feet), indicate there is no significant chance of 1999 KW4 colliding with Earth for at least a thousand years.

Date

picture released on 2001-05-30

Source

https://web.archive.org/web/20030219082308/https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/~ostro/kw4/ Archived from original

Author

Dr. Steven Ostro et al.

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(Reusing this file)

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[4]

File:Asteroid 1994 KW4.jpg

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image/jpeg

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697fd991d4730bddbfbf752482ce2d26ad449e53

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106,738 byte

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250 pixel

width

750 pixel

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