Asteroid Passes Earth, Looks Better Second Time

NASA scientists were able to capture the highest-resolution radar images of Asteroid 1998 WT24 as it safely passed by the Earth on Dec. 11 at a distance of 2.6 million miles. Asteroid 1998 WT24 has revealed itself for the second time to NASA researchers, who used the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, Calif., to probe it with microwave transmissions, which allowed them to have some of the highest-resolution radar images.

"With this upgraded resolution we can see the asteroid's ridges and concavities in much greater detail. One or two other radar bright features that could be outcrops on the surface are also visible," Shantanu Naidu, a radar researcher from the NASA team, said in a news release.

The first radar image of asteroid 1998 WT24 showed that the asteroid's diameter was approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) and it was shaped like a Russet potato.

Asteroid 1998 WT24 will most likely pass by the earth's neighborhood again on Nov. 11, 2018, where will make a distant pass at a range of about 12.5-million miles (52 lunar distances). The team of researchers is also planning to observe asteroid 2003 SD220, which will make its closest pass by on Dec. 24 at about 28 lunar distances, according to Naidu.

"Using radar, we should be able to see the shape of the object. Every time we observe something, we are seeing something nobody has ever seen. We are making an unknown known, and as a scientist what can be better than that?" Naidu said. 

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