Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA close encounter: image and animation – 11 May 2022

We imaged the large (1.8 km in diameter) potentially hazardous asteroid (7335) 1989 JA again, while it is safely approaching us. Here it is our image.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA - 11 May 2022.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA – 11 May 2022.

The image above comes from a single 300-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, this is why stars look like short trails.

At the imaging time, asteroid (7335) 1989 JA was at about 18.7 millions of km from the Earth and it was slowly approaching us. It was discovered by Eleanor Helin, from Palomar Observatory, on 1 May 1989.

We also did a short time-lapse, showing 1989 JA in motion against the stars. See the animation below:

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA: animation - 11 May 2022.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7335) 1989 JA: animation – 11 May 2022.

This 1.8 km large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 4 millions of km, almost 10.5 times the average lunar distance) from us on 27 May 2022, at 14:26 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet. We are trying to plan a live coverage of the fly-by from the Southern Hemisphere.

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