Triple Asteroid System Triples Observers' Interest
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 06, 2009
Radar imaging at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar on June 12
and 14, 2009, revealed that near-Earth asteroid 1994 CC is a triple
system. Asteroid 1994 CC encountered Earth within 2.52 million
kilometers (1.56 million miles) on June 10. Prior to the flyby,
very little was known about this celestial body. 1994 CC is only
the second triple system known in the near-Earth population. A
team led by Marina Brozovic and Lance Benner, both scientists at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., made the
discovery.
1994 CC consists of a central object about 700 meters (2,300 feet)
in diameter that has two smaller moons revolving around it.
Preliminary analysis suggests that the two small satellites are at
least 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter. Radar observations at
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, led by the center's director
Mike Nolan, also detected all three objects, and the combined
observations from Goldstone and Arecibo will be utilized by JPL
scientists and their colleagues to study 1994 CC's orbital and
physical properties.
The next comparable Earth flyby for asteroid 1994 CC will occur
in the year 2074 when the space rock trio flies past Earth at a
distance of two-and-a-half million kilometers (1.6 million miles).
Of the hundreds of near-Earth asteroids observed by radar, only
about 1 percent are triple systems.
