NASA discovers the existence of a new "double asteroid"

The asteroid YE5 was discovered by an observatory in Morocco in December 2017. However, many details of this object were only known at the end of June of this year when he crossed very close to the Earth . A pleasant surprise was taken by NASA astronomers when they realized that what they thought was a single celestial body were actually two that interlocked

. "Asteroid" reached the nearest point I would be on Earth in 170 years . It's 6 million kilometers, or 16 times the distance from our planet to the moon. That day, NASA noticed that the object had a strange shape, like lying down. Shortly after they could see that they were two bodies that were spinning in a relatively short space between them.

A binary system

What makes this pair special asteroids? After all, according to NASA, at least 15% of asteroids close to Earth with a diameter of more than 200 meters are binary . The difference is that these systems are not so similar to each other. Normally, a small body revolves around a larger one. However, this is not the case for YE5

Since the two objects have a similar size, they are either in orbit each other every 20 or 24 hours . They have a height of at least 900 meters in diameter according to NASA calculations. Of course, they have other features that make them somewhat different.

They noticed that their reflectivity patterns were completely different . Although it is thought that objects should be darker than coal, they reflect different levels of light. This is why it is thought that they must have different densities, compositions on their surface, or a different surface roughness.

According to NASA, the discovery of the binary nature of 2017 YE5 provides scientists with an important opportunity to improve understanding of the different types of binary systems and study of their mechanisms of entrainment . Radar badysis and optical observations can allow scientists to estimate the densities of 2017 YE5 objects, which will improve understanding of their composition and internal structure, as well as their formation