Rare Double Asteroid '2017 YE5' Revealed by Observatory Team

Near-Earth asteroid '2017 YE5' was discovered in December, 2017. In July, 2018, three of the world's largest radio telescopes  joined forces to reveal that the asteroid is actually a rare double asteroid. '2017 YE5' is only the fourth binary near-Earth asteroid ever observed in which the two bodies are roughly the same size, not touching, and orbiting each other. This video shows radar images of the pair gathered by NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar, Arecibo Observatory, and Green Bank Observatory.

Read Tech Briefs' related story, How NASA Tracks the Asteroids Flying by Earth.

Transcript

00:00:00 [Music] "RARE DOUBLE ASTEROID REVEALED" "When asteroid 2017 YE5 was first observed in December 2017, details about its physical properties were unknown." "But new radar observations tell us the asteroid is not one, but two objects, orbiting each other." "Each object is about 3,000 feet (900 meters) wide." "The binary asteroid made its closest approach to Earth on June 21, 2017, coming to within 16 times the distance between Earth and the Moon."

00:00:33 "NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar first detected that 2017 YE5 could be two distinct objects." "Joint radar observations by the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory confirmed the asteroid’s double identity." "2017 YE5 is only the fourth binary near-Earth asteroid ever observed in which the two bodies are roughly the same size, and not touching." "The two objects may have different surface properties." [LOGO: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology]