Posted on 07/12/2018 7:32:34 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The bouncing-baby asteroids were revealed by three radar telescopes, which shoot a beam of radio waves at nearby asteroids and wait for the reflection to return to Earth. Astronomers can use those received signals to paint a picture of the shape of an asteroid. In this case, that meant discovering that what looked like two lobes of one rock are actually two separate rocks, circling each other every 20 to 24 hours.
It's a particularly exciting surprise because the two pieces of 2017 YE5 are almost the same size, each about 3,000 feet (900 meters) across. So far, scientists have spotted only three other such well-matched pairs. Most binary asteroids are uneven, with one half dwarfing the other.
The new observations of 2017 YE5 showed another eye-catching result: The pair aren't identical twins. One half of the binary looks to be much darker than the other, suggesting that they're made of different things, or perhaps have extremely different textures.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
In first making joke about gender.
We’re all going to die!!! twice!!!
As long as the Erf is not on a collision path, explore away you crazy astronomers.
How close is it/them?
More like bipolar.
*ping*
Very purty but I so know not.
Trump’s cosmic balls.
Near as I can tell, it comes pas us pretty close every once in a while
“2017 YE5 ... passed within 16 lunar distances on June 21, 2018.[1]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_YE5
So it’s the Yin Yang asteroid?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/PIA22560-Asteroid-2017-YE5-Orbit-20180712.gif
Good thing the Erf is not traveling through the asteroid belt....
Holy Crap. Wonder if I can still get Asteroid Insurance?
Yes, those asteroids need to stay in their own back yard.
Truss them together and park them at a lagrange point.
Then hollow them out, spin them and make a nice space colony.
Nice!
Is that the dust off Uranus?
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