By NASA recently shared breathtaking new images of a large asteroid that passed relatively close to Earth, revealing surprising details about its size and structure, including the presence of a moon orbiting it. Known as asteroid 2011 UL21 (or 415029), it flew by Earth on June 27, coming within 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers)—about 17 times the distance to the moon. Initially thought to be larger, it measures approximately a mile in diameter.
Discovered in 2011 by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, these new insights were made possible by NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar near Barstow, California. By sending radio waves to the asteroid and capturing the reflected signals, scientists obtained detailed images showing its spherical shape and the smaller moonlet in its orbit.
Despite its size, NASA assures that asteroid 2011 UL21 poses no threat to Earth in the foreseeable future. These observations are crucial for understanding binary asteroid systems, which are believed to make up about two-thirds of asteroids of this size. Such discoveries provide valuable data on their orbits, masses, and densities, shedding light on their origins and formation processes.
In a related observation, NASA also studied asteroid 2024 MK, a smaller object passing even closer to Earth. This asteroid, discovered just days earlier on June 16, provided researchers with detailed surface images, offering a rare opportunity to study its physical properties up close.
