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Find a life partner, someone with whom to spend his days doing the Sun tour, is difficult. Now, scientists have discovered a rare perfect match: Asteroid 2017 YE5, originally thought to be solo, is actually a double asteroid. Two asteroids, each of about 800 meters in diameter, are in orbit around once a day because they orbit the sun together. Scientists do not know how long the two have been together.
"An asteroid that has a companion, another piece that is just as big, two of equal size, the ones we do not have much," said Anne Virkki, leader of the Radar Research Group planetary at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The asteroid, originally discovered by the MOSS observatory in Morocco in December 2017, was considered a single asteroid. Last month, Virkki and his team, working in parallel with a team from the NASA Goldstone Observatory in California, independently confirmed that it was a matching ensemble. defense officer. Much more common than 2017 YE5 are double asteroids that consist of a large "primary" asteroid and a smaller asteroid that orbits the largest. Double asteroids, or binary asteroids, usually form after an impact breaks a small piece of an asteroid. This piece then gives the original asteroid a "moonlet," according to Marina Brozović, a radar scientist at Jet Propulsion Labs in California.
Radar observations for 2017 YE5 were scheduled during Brozović's shift. "It's wonderful because you know with this first track that you look into the unknown, and it's still an opportunity for discovery." As the radar footage goes down live, you see it for the first time, "said Brozović. "When we look at this object, it's so interesting for us, it generates more questions than answers."
One of the main theories about this rare double rock is that he started as twin spouses. Large asteroids may look more like piles of cemented rubble than solid rocks. Brozović said that a rotating object like this can lengthen, like a peanut. It can then turn fast enough to separate, forming two nearly equal asteroids.
Alternatively, although less likely, asteroids could have started as two separate asteroids with similar orbits and locations, slowly approaching their orbits. Leaving aside, the asteroids could eventually become "gravitationally bound" and begin to swing one around the other.
"It looks like they're doing a dance in space," said Johnson, "and the question was raised. In granular radar images, asteroids revolve around each other, resembling something between an ultrasound and a Bigfoot observation.
NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office finds, tracks, and studies space objects near the Earth. "It's not the most priority thing we do, but maybe the day will come when it's the most important thing we do," Johnson said. According to its website, global defense coordination is responsible for "early detection of potentially dangerous objects," such as asteroids or comets that approach the Earth. The closest approach to Earth in 2017 would be 3.7 million miles. "We knew it was not an impact concern," Johnson said.
"Part of our job is to find them [space objects] and get to know them, but we do not worry, most of what we're talking about is less than 10 meters [about 30 feet]." Earth will take care of it, "said Johnson. The work is part of a congressionally directed goal to track objects close to the Earth, called the nearest object preparation plan. So far, they have found 8,000 of the estimated 25,000 target objects that are about 4 million miles from Earth and over 100 feet.
"Asteroids are debris from the formation of the solar system, they are about 4.6 billion years old," Brozović said. By studying them, "you understand the past of the solar system". NASA studies not only the trajectory, size and location of objects close to the Earth, but also their composition. "We believe that building blocks of life exist with these objects," Johnson said.
"I know they are rocks, but they are impressive rocks," Brozović said. Asteroids have been described as "black as coal", although in the infinite darkness of space, she said, charcoal actually looks brilliant.
What are the chances of an asteroid being a duo of the same size? Currently, planetary defense tracks more than 18,000 objects near the Earth of all sizes. Of these, 15% are confirmed binaries, but only four are binary and of equal size. So they are really rare. And the likelihood that two asteroids of the same size will join after billions of years of space travel is extremely small (well below your assumed odds of finding a companion, which a dating site has calculated to be 1 out of 560). more:
Many asteroids could be remnants of five destroyed worlds, say scientists
It's a comet! No, it's an asteroid! No, it's an extraterrestrial spaceship! (In fact, it's a comet.)
Watch an asteroid light up the sky as it disintegrates over the Earth's hours after discovery
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