Near-Earth asteroid 2012 UV158: close encounter
The near-Earth asteroid 2012 UV158
On Oct. 25 the small asteroid 2012 UV158 (about 50 meters in diameter), discovered the same day by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, reached a minimum distance from the earth of a bit less than 6 millions of km. While it was still waiting for confirmation, the Virtual telescope succeeded observing it, despite its quite fast apparent motion across the stars. The image above shows this very well.
The image was taken with the C14 robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope. An exposure of 60 seconds, with the telescope tracking the object, shows long star trails.
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