Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: new image – 4 Apr. 2020

Despite the very bright Moon, we captured new images of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: it is safely coming as close as 6.3 millions of km late this April. We will show it to you live!

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a image - 04 Apr. 2020

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a image – 04 Apr. 2020

The image above comes from the average of twelve, 300-seconds exposures, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The asteroid is in the center of the image, marked by an arrow. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of 1998 OR2.

When we imaged it, asteroid 1998 OR2 was at about 18.5 millions of km from us. This 1.8 – 4.1 km large asteroid will come as close as 6.3 millions of km from us next 29 Apr., – more than 16 times the average lunar distance: it will NOT hit us! – becoming bright enough to be seen with modest optical equipments. We will show it live, online.

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1 Response

  1. Maria says:

    Fantastic!!!!!

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