Asteroid 2005 YU55 of November 8, 2011

         2005 YU55 asteroid will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from Earth on 8/11/2011. The coming of this rock of 400 meters, type C, presents an opportunity for optical observations. If the object will reach a visual brightness of magnitude 11, it should be quite visible to observers in the northern and southern hemispheres. Closest to us will be on November, 8, 2011 at 11:28 p.m. and November, 9, 2011 at 7:13 UT.

2005 YU55 was "photographed" by Arecibo radar telescope, in Puerto Rico, on April 19, 2011.

The asteroid was discovered on December 28, 2005 by Robert McMillan who is part of the Spacewatch Program, near Tucson, Arizona.

          2005 YU55 is an object with the size of 400 m and has a roughly 20-hour rotation on its axis.
A few hours after it will come closest to Earth, will become accessible to optical observations, but will be a difficult target because of its rapid movement in the sky.

Trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55                                                                                                                           Credit: NASA

Although classified as potentially dangerous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of collision with Earth for at least the next 100 years. However, it will be the closest asteroid so large we know about in advance.
An event of this kind will happen again in 2028 when the asteroid 2001 WN5 will pass to 0.6 lunar distances from Earth.
On January 19, 2029 asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass approximately 280.000 km from Venus.

Conspiracy on the asteroid 2005 YU-55.
- NASA will not have people on the International Space Station (ISS), for the first weeks of November 2011 due to some problems. This coincides with the calendar of YU55 asteroid.

-  the U.S. will make a big national FEMA exercise (Federal Emergency Management Agency) on 8-9 November 2011.

- 2005 YU55 will pass through the Elenin comet tail that you heard about, which will cause the asteroid to change its direction toward Earth.

- Asteroid will hit the Moon.

- The usual rumors of earthquakes and tzunamis which on this size of asteroids, seems ridiculous.

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Posted in: Astronomy news