2024-07-10 02:42:11
Washington: NASA’s Goldstone Planetary Radar System has recently recorded two asteroids 2024 MK and 2011 UL21 passing near our Earth. The pictures that have come out of it are very surprising. Asteroid 2011 UL21 passed about 66 lakh kilometers from Earth on June 27. This is about 17 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Researchers first discovered this asteroid in 2011 using the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona. After that, it was first seen passing near Earth in June, which is its closest picture. Recent pictures show that it also has a moon of its own.
Scientists have considered asteroids dangerous
NASA kept an eye on it for 9 days using its Goldstone Solar Radar System. During this time, NASA said that the asteroid is almost spherical and it also has a partner, which is called a binary system. That is, it has a small moon, which is orbiting at a distance of 3 km. Scientists have considered this asteroid to be dangerous, which means that it is likely to collide with the Earth in the future.
Very low chance of collision
However, astronomers don’t think it will pose any threat in the near future. Studies of its future orbits suggest it won’t come very close to Earth. But astronomers sometimes don’t know an asteroid is in an orbit that takes it close to Earth until it gets close to Earth. This uncertainty is a key reason why NASA is trying to better understand the asteroids that come closest to our world.
Lance Benner, lead scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said that about two-thirds of asteroids of this size are believed to have binary systems. Its discovery is important because we can use measurements of their relative positions to estimate their mutual orbits, masses and densities. This will help in gaining information about their formation.