NASA discovers the existence of a new "double asteroid"



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The asteroid YE5 turned out to be actually a binary system sharing the same size but different reflectivity characteristics among them

The asteroid YE5 was discovered by an observatory in Morocco in December 2017. However, they did not know many details of this object until the end of June of this year when it crossed very close to Earth . NASA's astronomers took a pleasant surprise when they realized that what they thought was a single celestial body was actually two orbits each other .

On June 21, the 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 it was two bodies that were turning in a relatively short space between them.

  NASA discovers the existence of a new

A binary system

What makes this pair of asteroids special? 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 with YE5.

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<p><strong>  Since the two objects have a similar size, they are in orbit each other every 20 or 24 hours </strong>. 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. </p>
<p><strong>  They noted that their reflectivity patterns were completely different </strong>. 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 should have different densities, surface compositions, or different surface roughness. </p>
<p>  According to NASA, <strong> the discovery of the binary nature of 2017 YE5 provides scientists with an important opportunity to improve the understanding of the different types of binary systems and study of their mechanisms of entrainment </strong>. Radar analysis and optical observations can enable scientists to estimate the densities of 2017 YE5 objects, which will improve the understanding of their composition and internal structure, as well as their training </p>
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