Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (99942) Apophis: a movie

by Gianluca Masi · 01/07/2013

Potentially hazardous asteroid (99942) Apophis

The Virtual Telescope observed the potentially hazardous asteroid (99942) Apophis several times over the past few days and finally, using a set of images captured on Jan. 4, it was possible to make this video below. It shows Apophis while it moves across the stars: the telescope tracked the asteroid, so it sits at the center of the field of view, with the stars sliding on the background.

[hana-flv-player video=”https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/video/apophis_4jan2013.flv” width=”640″ description=”” player=”5″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”true” /]

To grab these images, the 14″ robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope was used.

On 10 Jan. 2013, at 01:00 UT, and 21 Jan. 2013, at 22:00 UT, the Virtual Telescope will offer free, online and live observing sessions to show Apophis to the public. Do not miss it!

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