"Bad" asteroid flew more than 400 years from Earth – NASA – News on UNN

KYIV. December 23, UNN. The asteroid SD220, which has a remarkable atypical rotation around its own axis, sank on Saturday about 2.9 million kilometers from the Earth. According to NASA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the SD220 would have been reported at a close distance from our planet over the past 400 years, reported ] UNN .

NASA received detailed photos of the asteroid on December 15 and 17, which helped correct scientists' knowledge of this celestial body. His observations these days have been made from the US Goldstone Space Agency in California using the telescope located in West Virginia and the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico. The photos received are 20 times more precise than the photos of the same object, taken when approaching the Earth, three years ago. The 1.6 km long SD220 looks like a hippopotamus immersed in water.

An asteroid is remarkable by two parameters. Its rotation period around its own axis is 12 days, which is very slow for the asteroid, notes NASA. In addition, the rotation itself is not typical.

"Radar images reach unprecedented levels of detail and can be compared to images of objects made by a nearby spacecraft," said Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Pasadena, California. "The most notable feature of the surface is a scar that lies halfway to one of the ends of the asteroid.The ramp extends for about 100 m. bright are visible on the images and can be a reflection of rocks, "said the scientist, also paying attention to the possible presence of craters on the SD220.

This celestial body was discovered on September 29, 2003 by NASA Observatory astronomers in Flagstaff, Arizona, which has already ceased to exist. Experts have classified the SD220 as potentially dangerous because of its size and proximity to Earth's orbit. However, the new data generally exclude the possibility of a collision of this asteroid with our planet in the future.

We recall that the rings of Saturn gradually evaporate and can disappear completely in less than 100 million years.