Asteroid 2007 TU24 Zooms by Earth
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:39:37 -0800 (PST)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-014a
Asteroid Zooms by Earth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 29, 2008
As expected, Asteroid 2007 TU24 made its closest approach to Earth at
12:33 a.m. today, Jan. 29 (3:33 a.m. Eastern time), and is now headed
away from our planet. At its closest point, the asteroid was 554,209
kilometers (344,370 miles) from Earth, or roughly 1.4 times the
distance
between the moon and Earth.
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. had
tracked the asteroid in advance and determined that there was no
possibility of an impact. The rare close approach is providing a
bonanza
for scientists, who plan to scrutinize images and data gathered in
hopes
of learning more about our solar system's closest neighbors - near-
Earth
asteroids. More observations are planned for Feb. 1 through 4 using
the
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory is operated by
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., for the National Science Foundation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media contact: Contact: DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Grey Hautaluoma 202-358-0668
Headquarters, Washington
grey.hautaluoma-1@xxxxxxxx
[Image]
This radar image of 2007 TU24 was obtained on January 28, 2008,
about 12 hours before the asteroid's 1.4-lunar-distance pass by
the Earth. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the
Greenbank Telescope in West Virginia were used to take this image.
.
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