miniTAO/MAX38 Caught Asteroid 2005YU55!!

Figure 1: 2005YU55 (Credit NASA)

On Nov. 8 2011, an asteroid with a diameter of about 400 m passed by the earth. The name of the asteroid is 2005YU55, which was found in 2005 by Robert McMillan, the University of Arizona, USA. It moves around in the elliptical orbit from the inside of Venus's orbit to Mars' orbit with a period of 1.22 years.

Figure 2: Orbit of 2005YU55 in this approach.

2005YU55 got close to about 325,000 km from the earth, closer than the moon, on 23:28 Nov. 8 2011 (UT). Mid-infrared instrument MAX38, which was in the observing campaign of 2011 autumn, successfully captured the asteroid.

Figure 3: Animation of images obtained with MAX38.
(Put your cursor on image, animation will start.)

Table 1: Details of observation.

Although the telescopes around the world observed the asteroid, there is only one mid-infrared data taken by MAX38. The data has been analyzed in detail. The temperature and albedo of the asteroid, which tell us the consisting material, will be revealed from our data.

The previous time of the closest approach of the asteroid with the same size was in 1976, and the next time of such event will be in 2028. In that time, TAO 6.5-m telescope will be actively working.