14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, November 7, the scientists with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, used the agency's Deep Space Network (DSN) antenna, in Goldstone, to conduct radio observations of the incoming asteroid 2005 YU55.
The team was able to create a short film following the campaign. The clip features several images that were collected by the massive, 70-meter (230-foot) DSN antenna, and shows how the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid is spinning through space.
“The movie shows the small subset of images obtained at Goldstone on November 7 that have finished processing. By animating a sequence of radar images, we can see more surface detail than is visible otherwise,” explains JPL radar astronomer Lance Benner.
He adds that the data have only revealed half of the space body's surface, which means that more surprises may be in store for astronomers. Already, several features on 2005 YU55 puzzled experts.