A tumbling 1,100-foot-wide asteroid
Click for full image.
Using the Goldstone radio antenna in California, scientists have been able to take some of the highest resolution radar images of the 1,100-foot-wide asteroid Nereus during its close approach to Earth on December 10, 2021.
The montage to the right, cropped to post here, shows twelve images from the 39-image sequence, which can also be viewed as an animation here.
During the asteroid’s close approach, an image resolution of about 12.3 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel was possible, revealing surface features such as potential boulders and craters, plus ridges and other topography. Asteroid Nereus’ previous approach in 2002 was near enough to Earth to reveal the asteroid’s size and overall shape, but too distant to show surface features. The new observations will also help scientists better understand the asteroid’s shape and rotation while providing them new data to further refine its orbital path around the Sun.
The asteroid will not make a similar close-approach again until 2060.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Click for full image.
Using the Goldstone radio antenna in California, scientists have been able to take some of the highest resolution radar images of the 1,100-foot-wide asteroid Nereus during its close approach to Earth on December 10, 2021.
The montage to the right, cropped to post here, shows twelve images from the 39-image sequence, which can also be viewed as an animation here.
During the asteroid’s close approach, an image resolution of about 12.3 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel was possible, revealing surface features such as potential boulders and craters, plus ridges and other topography. Asteroid Nereus’ previous approach in 2002 was near enough to Earth to reveal the asteroid’s size and overall shape, but too distant to show surface features. The new observations will also help scientists better understand the asteroid’s shape and rotation while providing them new data to further refine its orbital path around the Sun.
The asteroid will not make a similar close-approach again until 2060.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I have a question for those who understand radio astronomy better than myself.
Would these images be captured “radar” style, by actively bouncing radio waves of the astroid?
I actually don’t really understand imaging by radio astronomy in general, any reference to a good text based source where I can educate myself would be appreciated.
Lee,
Correct, this is Radar Astronomy. Places like the former Aericebo, Goldstone, and other radar sites, like the Deep Space Network, would transmit transmit anywhere from a few hundred kilowatts to over one Megawatt at microwave frequencies. The signal would hit the object, reflect the signal back, the same dish would receive the weak signal, the signal would go into preamps and signal processing to be outputted on a display. The computer does all the work. Here is a good introduction to Radar Astronomy.
I am into ham radio, so working satellites and weak signal processing can be done by anyone. A lot of the equipment can be bought off the shelf for under $100, like I said the computer is doing all the work. Of course that is radio astronomy, you are only receiving radio signals. If you want to do radar astronomy, you need a lot of money for equipment and the power bill.
Thank you Jay!
Unfortunately I cannot get the link to open, I’d be very pleased to have a read if you could post it again please.
Sorry Lee,
My bad, here is site again from National Academies Press: https://www.nap.edu/read/21729/chapter/8
Also here is another one that describes both radio and radar astronomy: https://www.nap.edu/read/12410/chapter/5
It is a dated document but the theories are still true.
Thank you Jay…. After a quick scan I’ve got some interesting Sunday reading!