A hippo-shaped asteroid has made a close approach to Earth, coming nearer to us than it has in 400 years.
The closest point the asteroid came to Earth was on December 22 when it passed at a distance of 1.8 million miles. The next closest approach will be in another 400 years when it will pass again, but slightly closer.
NASA has used Radar to capture some amazing images of Asteroid 2003 SD220. THe images show that the asteroid is around one mile long and looks like a wading hippo!
NASA used the 70-metre antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California along with the 100m telescope at Green Bank Virginia and the 305m antenna at Arecibo.
The Goldstone and Arecibo antennas transmitted powerful microwaves at the asteroid and the return signals were measured at Green Bank.
The results were resolutions 20 times higher than the agency was able to obtain during the asteroid’s last approach three years ago.
The resulting images show a 100 metre ridge that wraps part of the way around the asteroid towards one end – giving it that wading hippo appearance.
The Asteroid also has a very slow rotational period of 12 days and it moves in a very complicated way that NASA describes as being like a poorly thrown (American) football.
The Asteroid was first discovered in 2003 at the Lowell Observatory’s Near-Earth-Object Search in Flagstaff Arizona. Initially regarded as a potential threat to Earth these recent observations now suggest that it doesn’t pose a future risk to our planet.
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