Asteroid – Near Earth found a double asteroid – IT News and Science

Scientists studied an asteroid 2017 YE5, which was discovered on December 21, 2017, and found that it is in fact a double object of which the dimensions are about 900 meters in diameter, reports NASA.

Despite the fact that the astroid was detected in December, the researchers had no data on its physical characteristics until June. He became the fourth binary object of equal mass that revolved around the Earth, discovered in the history of observation.

On June 21, 2017, the YE5 was approaching our planet at a minimal distance of 170 million years. Observations of asteroids have established that it consists of two parts that overlap every 20-24 hours.

In addition, scientists have discovered that some parts of the asteroid are not identical: one is much darker than the other. This may indicate that they differ in composition or texture.

Scientists have previously stated that potentially harmful to terrestrial asteroids remains invisible to terrestrial telescopes. The researchers came to their conclusions by analyzing several observatories of objects close to the Earth.