The ESO is engaged in one of the most exciting areas of astronomy: the search for exoplanets — new worlds orbiting other stars. The space agency employs its SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to help with this search. And new photos produced by VLT have obtained the sharpest-ever images of a rare double asteroid as it barrelled by Earth late last month.
ESO has today released an image of the asteroid which made a near-Earth approach.
Although the real image looks like a couple of fuzzy blobs, it does depict the asteroid’s distinct binary nature.
The photos was also released alongside an artist’s impression of what it might look like
The cutting-edge exoplanet-spotting SPHERE instrument is extremely sensitive.
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ESO describes SPHERE (the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument) as “one of the very few instruments in the world capable of obtaining images sharp enough to distinguish the two components of the asteroid.”
The larger body and the smaller one are separated by only 1.6 miles (2.6km).
Although asteroid 1994 KW4 is classified as “potentially hazardous,” the space rock has yet to pose a threat to Earth.
ESO used the asteroid as a test of the International Asteroid Warning Network.
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Researchers want to learn as much as possible about passing asteroids so mankind can better understand how to deflect dangerous space rocks and mitigate damage from asteroid impacts.
Asteroid 1994 KW4 is of particular scientific interest because it is similar to another double asteroid named Didymos with the potential to threaten life on Earth in the distant future.
US space agency NASA is working on sending its Double Asteroid Redirection Test to Didymos where it will crash into the asteroid’s moonlet in 2022 and attempt to change its tangent.
And allow the project sounds like science fiction, NASA believes the very real threat can be mitigated by nudging asteroids away from Earth.
And studying harmless 1994 KW4 is one more small step in preparing to battle rogue asteroids.
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ESO astronomer Olivier Hainaut explained: “These data, combined with all those that are obtained on other telescopes through the IAWN campaign, will be essential for evaluating effective deflection strategies in the event that an asteroid was found to be on a collision course with Earth.”
“In the worst possible case, this knowledge is also essential to predict how an asteroid could interact with the atmosphere and Earth’s surface, allowing us to mitigate damage in the event of a collision.”
Diego Parraguez, who was piloting the telescope, added: “The double asteroid was hurtling by the Earth at more than 70,000kmh, making observing it with the VLT challenging.
He had to use all his expertise to lock on to the fast asteroid and capture it with SPHERE.