A close approach of an asteroid roughly the size and shape of the Empire State Building gave astronomers the perfect opportunity to image the space rock in detail using planetary radar.
On Feb. 3, the asteroid, called 2011 AG5, came withing about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) of Earth, or about five times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
Rubble pile asteroids are really hard to break - Big Think
There are more than a million asteroids one kilometer in diameter or larger roaming through our Solar System . Tens of thousands of these are near-Earth asteroids — those which come close to our home planet or cross its orbit.
Asteroids come in different shapes and sizes, and one key categorical distinction: Monolithic asteroids are a single rock, while rubble pile asteroids are actually many rocks bound together by gravity.
Water rich asteroids came from far outside the asteroid belt
NASA's planetary #radar captures detailed view of oblong asteroid @NASA https://t.co/mPaPxkBaF5 physorg_com Sat Feb 18 09:28:39 +0000 2023
Earlier this month, #PlanetayDefense experts got a closer look at an unusually shaped #asteroid named 2011 AG5, whi… https://t.co/p0CPefvOSv AsteroidWatch (from Washington, D.C.) Fri Feb 17 20:01:51 +0000 2023
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