First triple near-Earth asteroid found

Although it may not be of interst to some, I feel this is worht posting.
It could well change the outlook on dealing with NEOs
The risks involved could be greatly increased ow. If we are watching what we think is one rock safely drifting we may miss one of its partners that is knockd towards us....

To their surprise, they found that 2001 SN263 isn’t one rock, but three — the first triple system discovered among near-Earth asteroids. The largest chunk has a diameter of about 2 kilometers while two smaller fragments that orbit the main body are 1 km and 400 meters in diameter, Nolan reported July 17 at the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors meeting in Baltimore.

First triple near-Earth asteroid found

What I find curious is the spherical appearance of the asteroid. It's only 2km across and has two smaller ones orbiting it:



If this is natural, it's very odd. Maybe the spherical quality is a result of the radar imaging used to photograph the object.

Anyway, IMO it's either extremely old and untouched, artificially placed there, or artificially constructed.

When sunlight strikes a near-Earth object that isn’t perfectly spherical, the uneven heating of the surface causes the body to spin up. If the object spins too fast, it breaks apart and can sometimes form stable satellites that orbit the main body.

So if those two smaller objects broke off of the largest object, why is the largest object still spherical?

it looks like a planet with two moons.
Nairobi anyone?

have a star

great find and i agree with you on the appearence, it looks TOO spherical for it to be natural for its size

Makes me think of a Carrier BG with its sweepers out front and behind !!!

reply to post by LastChance?

Nairobi

Nibiru

I'd expect this to be a long exposure shot and the stretching of what I assume to be the smaller moon-asteroids into streaks on the image seems to support that. Now if the main body is spinning at all (relative to a view from the earth) the long exposure and spin would blur the edges and surface details giving a more spherical appearance. A lot also depends on the resolution of the original imaging and how its been processed (if at all). Most image processing either removes detail or adds bogus dots even if the result looks better or is more useful.

Good find though because it does look VERY smooth!

This sort of thing (multiple bodies) may explain why some of these objects have had differing and sometimes rather conflicting reports of their size and mass over the last few years.

-ScienceJoe

I saw a special maybe a year ago, where there was a rather small asteroid (maybe they were talking about this one), and it was indeed, round. There was a scientific explanation for that at least, but I don't remember what it was.

It's probably the Death Star with a couple of Star Destroyers in close attendance

reply to post by LastChance?

it looks like a planet with two moons.
Nairobi anyone?

I am sure you meant Nibiru....If it is then the Annunaki are probably only 2 inches tall. Not too much of a threat IMO

reply to post by Mogget





reply to post by Evasius


Good pick up
At 10Million Kilometers it cant be ours if it is artificial...My best guess is that it picked up to 2 hitchikers along its travels.

Could this be considered a super mini nano dwarf planet?!?!?