Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (4179) Toutatis close approach: video (8 Dec. 2012)

The Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (4179) Toutatis, imaged at the Virtual Telescope

While approaching our planet, the potentially hazardous asteroid (4179) Toutatis is monitored by the Virtual Telescope robotic facility and these image and video come from a good observing session.

In the image above, the telescope tracked the stars, so the asteroids shows as a quite long trail, because of its apparent motion during the exposure (at that time, it was of 11″ per minute).

The video below comes from about 300 frames, with the scope tracking this time the rock, so stars are apparently flying away.

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All the images were captured remotely using the PlaneWave 17 robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope Project

The Virtual Telescope planned a free, online session to show Toutatis in real time!

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