Scientists discover asteroid passing Earth has satellite
Reuters
2013-05-31
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1998 QE2, not much to look at, but this asteroid has caused a bit of a stir at NASA.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) JET PROPULSION LABORATORY RADAR SCIENTIST, MARINA BROZOVIC, SAYING:
"Well it was quite a bit of a surprise. It turns out that 1998 QE2 is a binary asteroid."
The discovery that the asteroid has its own moon came on Wednesday when astronomers noticed the asteroid had a smaller asteroid, or satellite, orbiting it.
The radar imagery was taken using a 230 foot Deep Space Network antenna in California.
A closer look showed the asteroid has a white dot orbiting it, this, NASA says, is it's satellite.
The asteroid and its smaller moon were set to pass Earth from a safe distance of 3.6 million miles on Friday.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) JET PROPULSION LABORATORY RADAR SCIENTIST, MARINA BROZOVIC, SAYING:
"Well it was quite a bit of a surprise. It turns out that 1998 QE2 is a binary asteroid."
The discovery that the asteroid has its own moon came on Wednesday when astronomers noticed the asteroid had a smaller asteroid, or satellite, orbiting it.
The radar imagery was taken using a 230 foot Deep Space Network antenna in California.
A closer look showed the asteroid has a white dot orbiting it, this, NASA says, is it's satellite.
The asteroid and its smaller moon were set to pass Earth from a safe distance of 3.6 million miles on Friday.
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