NASA: A hippo-shaped asteroid passes near the Earth

A recent hippopotamus is closer to Earth than it was 400 years ago and the closest to the asteroid reached Earth on December 22, when it was more than 3 million kilometers away. In a year, it will be closer to what it has been this month.

Asteroid

According to the British Mirror website, NASA has used radar to capture amazing images of the asteroid Asteroid 2003 SD220The images show that the asteroid is about a mile long and looks like a hippopotamus. NASA also used the 70-meter antenna of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, California, as well as the Greenbank Telescope, Virginia, and the 305-meter antenna, in Arecibo, to follow up of this asteroid. .

The results were 20 times more accurate than what the agency had been able to obtain three years ago, indicating that the asteroid also had a very slow rotation over 12 days and was evolving in a very complex way, which the NASA describes as American football.

The asteroid was first discovered in 2003 while searching for a near-Earth alternative, and the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, was credited with the discovery.