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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Rogue's Gallery of Radar-Imaged Near-Earth Asteroids

Rogue's Gallery of Radar-Imaged Near-Earth Asteroids
Rogue's Gallery of Radar-Imaged Near-Earth Asteroids TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Near-Earth asteroids come in all shapes, from round (2005 YU55) to faceted (2017 BQ6) to lumpy (2017 CS) to very lumpy (2014 JO25). Their shapes are revealed by radar images made by bouncing radio signals off the objects when they fly past Earth. BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: A surprising number of near-Earth asteroids are multiples. There are binaries (2004 BL86) and even triple asteroids (3122 Florence). Most have small moonlets orbiting bigger main bodies, but some have near-equal-size components (2017 YE5). Occasionally, the two bodies approach each other, forming a contact binary (1999 JD6). NASA/JPL/GSSR