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North County’s famous Palomar Observatory last weekend photographed an SUV-sized asteroid that NASA says set the record for coming closer to Earth than any near-Earth asteroid known.
The NEA – which measured 10 to 20 feet in diameter – passed within 1,830 miles of Earth over the southern Indian Ocean while traveling at 8 miles per second. NASA says the object would have burned in Earth’s atmosphere had it been on an impact path.
Asteroid 2020 HQ, as it is known, was photographed by Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility, one of Palomar’s instruments, an observatory also operated by Caltech.
The photograph was taken at 9:08 p.m. Saturday by Zwicky and appears as a white streak against a blurred black background.
Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement, “It’s really cool to see a little asteroid come so close, because we can see the Earth’s gravity dramatically bend its path.
“Our calculations show that this asteroid was rotated about 45 degrees when it rolled over near our planet.”
Asteroid 2020QG is microscopic compared to the fictional “Texas size” asteroid that threatens Earth in the movie “Armageddon”. NASA says NEAs like 2020 HQ only fly over Earth a few times a year.
The observatory is located on Palomar Mountain, approximately 40 miles northeast of San Diego. He began exploring the universe in 1949 and helped transform astronomy and physics, particularly with his discoveries about galaxies, quasars, supernovas, and planets that exist beyond the solar system.
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