Astronomers were keeping their eyes on the skies yesterday as the asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis passed Earth by. While it was never a direct threat to Earth, its passage presented an opportunity for scientists to study it and the history of the early Solar System.
At its closest approach, 4179 Toutatis was 7 million km away from Earth, or roughly 18 times farther than the Moon. But that was close enough for NASA’s Goldstone Observatory to snap some radar images of the object (shown below). The timing could not have been more fortuitous, since NASA had recently upgraded to a new digital imaging system. And numerous amateur astronomers were able to get some interesting pics and even video.
Already, there are some preliminary findings from this 4.5-kilometer- long (3-mile-long) asteroid’s flyby. According to Michael Busch, a radar team member of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory: “Toutatis appears to have a complicated internal structure. Our radar measurements are consistent with the asteroid’s little lobe being ~15% denser than the big lobe; and they indicate 20% to 30% over-dense cores inside the two lobes.”
In truth, this is not the first time that Toutatis has passed Earth by. As it passes by Earth’s orbit every 4 years, it is one of the largest known potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) to have an orbit around the Sun so closely resembling our own. This presents another opportunity for study of the object. As Lance Benner of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program (NEOP) puts it: “We already know that Toutatis will not hit Earth for hundreds of years. These new observations will allow us to predict the asteroid’s trajectory even farther into the future.”
Source: Universe Today
Stories by Williams 
I bet there’s some 2012 doomsday believer out there who’s thinking, “We dodged a bullet, but the big one will be in either 9 or 19 days, depending on which day the world actually ends”.
I had a feeling you’d say that 😉
Toutatis is a tricky asteroid. In 2004 it came within a few million Km. It has an erratic orbit, projections for the next 600 years put earth out of harms way; at least from Toutatis.
If you want something interesting to ponder – try Nemesis. Most stars in the universe are binary, meaning they travel in pairs. Scientist discovered that about every 26 million years earth suffered a catastrophic event. It has been theorized that our sun has an evil twin dubbed Nemesis. Every 26 million years it wrecks havoc.
Stick that in your tin foil hat doom sayers!
I have heard of this, and it was the plot of Clarke’s novel of the same name wasn’t it?
That rings a bell. On another point – have you fashioned your tin foil hat? Joking of course, but nothing better than ruffling prophecy folks.(I assure you I’m not pegging you, just hoping your blog picks up some members of the doomsday club) My only solace is in knowing that more and more – sky gazing is becoming the fashion.Good post stories, keep it up.
Ha, no, you’re not pegging me. I am not one of the doomsayers, but I was just joking with a friend here about how this is definitely going to be putting a scare on some of them. Maybe they’ll have something to turn to once the Mayan Calendar runs out. Poor folks, must be so hard being wrong about the end of the world over and over again. Only thing worse would be being right 😉
Apparently we had another flyby that came inside the moons orbit…um finding the link…here: http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_newly-discovered-asteroid-buzzes-earth-inside-moons-orbit_1777157
Interesting… perusing now, thanks!
Weird, huh? While everyone was watching Toutatis, this little guy slips through even closer…
Posting! Mind if I quote you on that?
Go ahead…