Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA close encounter: image and animation – 18 May 2022
The potentially hazardous asteroid (7335) 1989 JA is still on its way, safely approaching us. While waiting for its fly-by next week, we imaged it again.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA – 18 May 2022.
See asteroid (7335) 1989 JA live here!
The image above comes from a single 600-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, this is why stars look like trails.
When the image above was captured, asteroid (7335) 1989 JA was at about 10.7 millions of km from the Earth and it was slowly approaching us. This large (1.8 km in diameter, source Nasa/JPL: the ESA/NEOCC indicates a diameter of 730 meters) minor planet was discovered by Eleanor Helin on 1 May 1989, from Palomar Observatory. Eleanor Francis “Glo” Helin pioneered the field of near-earth Objects.
We also managed to create a short video, clearly showing 1989 JA in motion against the stars. See the animation below:
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA: animation – 18 May 2022. Time is UTC.
This 1.8 km large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 4 millions of km, almost 10.5 times the average lunar distance) from us on 27 May 2022, at 14:26 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
We are very pleased to announce that on the occasion of asteroid (7335) 1989 JA fly-by, we will host a couple of events presenting very important news about our project: details here!
Support The Virtual Telescope Project!
Support us! Please, donate and receive an EXCLUSIVE image of the stunning COMET C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and much more, specifically made for supporters like you!
(you can adjust the amount later)
