NASA spots large asteroid with moon orbiting it, as it makes close flyby Earth

Earth was seen engaged in a rare cosmic event last week when two huge asteroids made a flyby at a very close distance from the planet.

The asteroids, named 2024 MK and 2011 UL21, did not come so close to Earth to pose a hazard to the planet. However, both of them were within range of radar imaging systems.

The two asteroids were tracked by the scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

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It was found that one of the asteroids had a little moon orbiting it and the astronomers spotted the other only 13 days before it made itsclosest approachto Earth.

The asteroids passed near the Earth on June 27. They made a flyby at a distance of 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometres) which is 17 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.

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In 2011, the asteroid 2011 UL21 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona.

“The term ‘Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ (PHA) is a precise formal definition, referring to minor planets larger than approximately 140 metres [459 feet] that can come within 7.5 million km [4.6 million miles] from the Earth,” said Gianluca Masi, who is an astrophysicist and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project, in astatementbefore the flyby.

“In other words, only the largest asteroids capable of approaching close enough to our planet are flagged as PHAs, which does not mean they are going to hit the Earth, but they nonetheless warrant better monitoring," he added.

NASA says asteroids belonged to a binary system

NASA's Deep Space Network’s Goldstone planetary radar was closely watching the asteroids and captured it seven times as it moved at a speed of 25 kilometres (16 miles) per second.

Watch:Asteroid 2024 MK passes Earth at 300,000 km

NASA got the first chance to image the asteroid by using radar and in that they found that the asteroid belonged to a binary system.

“It is thought that about two-thirds of asteroids of this size are binary systems, and their discovery is particularly important because we can use measurements of their relative positions to estimate their mutual orbits, masses, and densities, which provide key information about how they may have formed,” said Lance Benner, who is a principal scientist at JPL who helped lead the observations, in astatement.

(With inputs from agencies)