Asteroid 66391 1999 KW4, first observed on May 29, 1998 with the Whipple Observatory telescope (Arizona, USA), a year before receiving the official designation and cataloging, belongs to the Aton group. It makes one revolution around the Sun in 188 Earth days, moving as far as possible from it by 162 million kilometers and approaching 30 million kilometers.
In May 2001, an asteroid came close enough to Earth, at a distance of 4.7 million kilometers, so that we could study it. We know about 66391 1999 KW4 more than about any other potentially dangerous asteroid.
-Steven Ostro, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose research on asteroid 66391 1999 KW4 was awarded the cover of Science magazine in 2006
The size of a potentially dangerous asteroid is estimated at 1.32 kilometers. During the radar observations conducted by the Arecibo Observatory in 2001, 66391 1999 KW4 confirmed the existence of a satellite in a 2.6-km orbit measuring about 360 meters, which makes one revolution around it in 17 Earth hours. In addition, astronomers managed to find out that the object has a strongly oblate shape, resembling a flying saucer, a rotation period of 2.8 Earth hours and an equatorial ridge.
This year, the maximum approach of the asteroid to the Earth will occur on May 26 at 2:05 Moscow time. 66391 1999 KW4 will rush past our planet at a distance of approximately 5.18 million kilometers at a speed of 22 kilometers per second.
Next time, a relatively close double asteroid will approach the Earth in 2024, then it will pass at a distance of about 2.1 million kilometers from our planet. Astronomers note that in the next thousand years there is no threat of a collision of 66391 1999 KW4 with the Earth.
Asteroid 66391 1999 KW4
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