Universe  ID: 11546

Space Invader

Story by Kayvon Sharghi Released on June 24, 2014
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Earth has a close encounter with a new asteroid.
On June 8, 2014, an asteroid shaped like a bowling pin and roughly the length of the Empire State Building shot past Earth. At its closest approach, the asteroid, called 2014 HQ124, came within one million miles of the planet. Though it passed at a safe distance, its size and the proximity of its orbit qualify it for classification as a potentially hazardous object—one of more than 1,000 migrating bodies known to exist in the solar system that could have a devastating effect in the event of a collision. Scientists first spotted the asteroid on April 23, 2014, using NASA’s NEOWISE spacecraft. On June 8, a trio of ground-based telescopes, including NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna in California, made radar observations of its surface. The views obtained by the telescopes suggest the asteroid’s elongated figure may actually be the result of two individual asteroids that are traveling together as one. Watch the video to see images of asteroid 2014 HQ124.
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This video of asteroid 2014 HQ124 is assembled from 21 radar images taken over four hours.
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The asteroid came within 776,000 miles of Earth. Its orbit is colored blue in this diagram.
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Multiple views of the asteroid (above) were captured during its approach.
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NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in California's Mojave Desert (above) used radar to image the asteroid.

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Writer:
Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Video and radar images courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF
Asteroid orbit diagram courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
Deep Space Network antenna image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11546

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Universe