The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico watching the approaching this week Earth asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2, which has a rather unusual shape that resembles a fencing mask
Arecibo Radar / Twitter
According to the head of the planetary radar at the Observatory Anna Virkki, its topographical features are such, if he remembers that you need to wear a mask
UCF
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico watching the approaching this week Earth asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2, which has a rather unusual shape that resembles a fencing mask. He’s not a threat, but seemed to know that our planet is faced with a pandemic of a novel coronavirus, joking in the University of Central Florida (UCF).
“Small topographic features such as hills and ridges at one end of the asteroid 1998 OR2, striking from a scientific point of view, – says the head of the planetary radar at the Observatory Anna Virkki.- But as we all think about COVID-19, these features look as if 1998 OR2 remember that you have to wear a mask”.
It is a heavenly body falls into the category of “potentially hazardous asteroids” because of its size and reach of flight from the Earth: its diameter is of the order of 2-4 km, the asteroid is moving at a speed of 9 km per second. 29 April 2020 it will fly 6.29 million km from Earth, is almost 16 times further away than the moon, informs the Moscow planetarium.
No threat to our planet he is not responsible, but its passage caused a great response in the media. The singularity of this asteroid also is that among all the “potentially dangerous” objects it is one of the largest and brightest, so it can be relatively easy to observe, what to do now many telescopes around the world. Now it can even be seen in the average telescope.
One revolution around the Sun it makes for 1345 earth days or 3.68 earth years, far away from him at 561 million km and closer to 152 million km, and Its orbit passes near Earth. In 2079, the year it will pass even closer – 1.77 million km from our planet.
#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservatory staff are taking the proper safety measures as we continue observations. This week we have been observing near-Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it’s wearing a mask! It’s at least 1.5 km across and is passing 16 lunar distances away! pic.twitter.com/X2mQJCT2Qg
— Arecibo Radar (@AreciboRadar) April 18, 2020
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