Close Approach of Asteroid 2011 MD

Asteroid 2011 MD passes by the Earth on June 27, 2011. The distance to Earth at closest approach is about 12,000 km. 2011 MD is estimated to be about 10 meters across--small enough that it would explode in the Earth's atmosphere if it were on a collision course with Earth (and it's not.) Time is sped up by a factor of 400 in the animation. More information about 2011 MD can be found here: http://orbit.psi.edu/~tricaric/2011MD.html

The trajectory of the asteroid was optained from JPL's HORIZONS system on Jun 26, 2011. The shape of 2011 MD is unknown. I've used a model of asteroid 25143 Itokawa from Robert Gaskell. Itokawa is the asteroid closest in size to 2011 MD that's been visited by a spacecraft.

Rendered using the VESTA engine

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Asteroid
• 2011MD
• Astronomy
• Space
• VESTA

[MeirTheMusician]

amazing.

[bunker9603]

This is a great animation...nicely done!