In mid-August, asteroid 2002 NY40 came within 524,000 kilometers of Earth. Students from Yale University using a telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory captured a sequence of images of the 700-meter asteroid. Strung together into a movie, these images demonstrate the asteroid’s impressive speed, as seen from Earth over a period of two hours. The William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, Canary Islands, obtained a high-quality image of the asteroid just before its point of closest approach.

Go to: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr02/pr0207.html and http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/ing32002.html

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