Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: new image and movie – 10 Apr. 2020

Here it is a new image of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2, slowly brightening and safely approaching us. On 28 Apr., we will show it live, online.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a image - 10 Apr. 2020

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a image – 10 Apr. 2020

The image above comes from a single 300-seconds exposure, 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, visible as a sharp dot of light, marked with an arrow. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of 1998 OR2.

Using 89 images collected back to back, we made this animation: the asteroid seems to move across the stars

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a movie- 10 Apr. 2020

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2: a movie – 10 Apr. 2020

When we imaged it, asteroid 1998 OR2 was at about 15 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 equipment, if you know where to look. We will show it live, online.

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