Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YJ7 very close encounter: an image – 30 Dec. 2024.
We imaged the near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YJ7 a few hours before its very close, but safe encounter with the Earth, bringing it as close as 321.000 km from us, 83% of the average lunar distance.
Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YJ7 very close encounter: 30 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 265”/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 YJ7 was at about 360.000 km from us, inside the lunar orbit, almost at its minimum distance.
This 5-meter large asteroid reached its minimum distance (about 321.000 km, 83% of the average lunar distance) from us on 31 Dec. 2024, at 23:39 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there were no risks at all for our planet.
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