Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YN7 very close encounter: an image – 29 Dec. 2024.
We imaged the near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YN7, confirming it at the discovery time, around its very close, but safe encounter with the Earth on 30 Dec., when it came as close as 157.000 km from us, 40% of the average lunar distance.
Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YN7 very close encounter: 29 Dec. 2024.
The image above comes from a single 120-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″ + Paramount MEII + SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the fast (about 700”/minute) apparent motion of the asteroid, so it looks like a sharp dot of light in the center, while stars show long, bright streaks on the background.
At the imaging time, asteroid 2024 YN7 was at about 180.000 km from us, almost at its minimum distance. We managed to provide astrometry, as the object was still waiting for confirmation when we observed it and our data were published in the discovery circular MPEC 2024-Y202.
This 10-meter large asteroid reached its minimum distance (about 157.000 km, 40% of the average lunar distance) from us on 30 Dec. 2024, at 01:53 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there were no risks at all for our planet.
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