From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6742

Asteroid Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 10, 2017

[Images]
This composite of 25 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar
data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

Radar images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 were obtained on Feb. 6 and 7 with NASA's 70-meter (230-foot) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications
Complex in California. They reveal an irregular, angular-appearing asteroid about 660 feet (200 meters) in size that rotates about once every three
hours. The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per
pixel.

"The radar images show relatively sharp corners, flat regions, concavities, and small bright spots that may be boulders," said Lance Benner of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads the agency's asteroid radar research program. "Asteroid 2017 BQ6 reminds me of the
dice used when playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is certainly more angular
than most near-Earth asteroids imaged by radar."

Asteroid 2017 BQ6 safely passed Earth on Feb. 6 at 10:36 p.m. PST (1:36
a.m. EST, Feb. 7) at about 6.6 times the distance between Earth and the
moon (about 1.6 million miles, or 2.5 million kilometers). It was discovered on Jan. 26 by the NASA-funded Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Project, operated by MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the Air Force Space Command's Space Surveillance Telescope at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Radar has been used to observe hundreds of asteroids. When these small, natural remnants of the formation of the solar system pass relatively
close to Earth, deep space radar is a powerful technique for studying
their sizes, shapes, rotation, surface features, and roughness, and for
more precise determination of their orbital path.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages and operates NASA's Deep Space Network, including the Goldstone Solar System Radar,
and hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects can be found at:

http://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

For more information about NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

For asteroid and comet news and updates, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:

twitter.com/AsteroidWatch

News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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