An asteroid shaped like a wading hippopotamus has been spotted by NASA 1.8 million miles (2.9 million km) away from Earth.
The space agency has categorised the space rock as 'potentially hazardous' due to its proximity to Earth but say it poses no risk to life on our planet.
This is the closest approach of the asteroid in more than 400 years and it will not be this close for another 52 years, astronomers claim.
Radar images reveal the rock spins around once every 12 days and has a complex rotation similar to a poorly thrown American football, NASA claims.
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An asteroid shaped like a wading hippopotamus (pictured) has been spotted by NASA 1.8 million miles (2.9 million km) away from Earth. It is formally known as asteroid 2003 SD220 and new images of the space rock found it is at least one mile (1.6km) long
It is formally known as asteroid 2003 SD220 and new images of the space rock found it is at least one mile (1.6km) long.
NASA compared the asteroid's shape to that of an 'exposed portion of a hippopotamus wading in a river'.
The most notable feature of the asteroid, NASA claims, is a ridge protruding more than 300 feet (100 metres) above the surface.
All images were obtained by a partnership of NASA's 70m (230ft) antenna in California, the National Science Foundation's 100m (330ft) telescope in West Virginia and the Arecibo Observatory's 305m (1,000ft) antenna in Puerto Rico.
'The radar images achieve an unprecedented level of detail and are comparable to those obtained from a spacecraft flyby,' said Lance Benner of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the scientist leading the observations from Goldstone.
'The most conspicuous surface feature is a prominent ridge that appears to wrap partway around the asteroid near one end.
'The ridge extends about 330 feet [100 meters] above the surrounding terrain.
'Numerous small bright spots are visible in the data and may be reflections from boulders.
'The images also show a cluster of dark, circular features near the right edge that may be craters.'
A potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is an asteroid whose orbit comes nearer than 0.05AU (about 7.5 million km) to the Earth. It is believed one hits Earth once every 200 - 300 years (stock image)
The images combined data and resources from the three different observatories and created a resolution of 12 feet (3.7 meters) per pixel - 20 times finer than previous images.
'The new details we've uncovered, all the way down to 2003 SD220's geology, will let us reconstruct its shape and rotation state, as was done with Bennu, target of the OSIRIS-REx mission,' said Edgard Rivera-Valentín, USRA scientist at LPI.
'Detailed shape reconstruction lets us better understand how these small bodies formed and evolved over time.'
Link hienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2018/12/24/nasa-has-revealed-a-potentially-hazardous-hippo-shaped-asteroid-just-flew-past-earth/
Main photo article An asteroid shaped like a wading hippopotamus has been spotted by NASA 1.8 million miles (2.9 million km) away from Earth.
The space agency has categorised the space rock as ‘potentially hazardous’ due to its proximity to Earth but say it poses no risk to life on our planet.
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It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
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