Close asteroid removed in the photo

on December 12 the minimum distance to the Earth approached the asteroid (4179) Toutatis. Scientists were able to obtain high-quality images of the celestial body in two ways: from the Chinese lunar probe "Chang'e 2" in the vicinity of the asteroid and using the radio telescope at NASA's Goldstone, California.

Chinese machine soon after the passage of the asteroid as close to the Earth (about seven million kilometers) approached him at a distance of 3 km 2, making a series of images with high razresheniem.

These images are assembled in a short video that gives an idea about the motion of the heavenly tela.

Asteroid irregular oblong 5, 4 km long revolves around its axis for 176 Earth hours and around the sun - 4, 026 years. Its orbit is very chaotic due to resonance with the Earth and Jupiter, and therefore the trajectory of its flight in the future is difficult to predict. Different accuracy of the forecast for the next 50-400 years indicate that these terms Toutatis has virtually no chance encounter with our planet. Nevertheless, it is officially classified as potentially dangerous objects.

Source: www.ridus.ru/news/59251/