Thursday, January 12, 2012

APOD 2.2

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This is a radar image taken by the Deep Space Network, a radio telescope located in Goldstone, California. The image depicts Asteroid 2005 YU55, an asteroid that passed nearby to earth. Although it maintained a safe distance from our planet and was never a threat, a collision with an asteroid of this size could have disastrous consequences, causing a large tsunami or an explosion equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake. The detection of this asteroid raises the concerning question of whether there may be other, yet undetected asteroids that do pose a danger to our planet.

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