They will also become the fueling stops for humanity as we continue to explore our solar system. Not only did asteroids provide Earth with the building blocks of life and much of its water, but in the future, they will become valuable resources for mineral ores and other vital natural resources. 'I may grab my favorite binoculars and give it a shot myself,' Yeomans said. At its closest approach, it’s expected to be observable from the Northern Hemisphere with small telescopes and strong binoculars. 30, 2004, with the 1-meter LINEAR telescope in New Mexico.

'At present, we know almost nothing about the asteroid, so there are bound to be surprises,' said JPL astronomer Lance Benner, who is the principal investigator for the Goldstone observations of the asteroid.Īstronomers first detected the asteroid on Jan. Although this method has detected echoes from about 200 near-Earth asteroidsbefore, no two are the same.

The resulting radar 'echo' looks like a sonogram and can reveal details about the asteroid's three-dimensional shape, its rotation and even its internal density. These radio dishes will beam microwave signals at the asteroid, which will then bounce off the target, and return to Earth. 'While 2004 BL86 poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more,' Don Yeomans, of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.Īstronomers will track asteroid 2004 BL86 with radar during its flyby by using the massive dish-shaped antennas at NASA's Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California, and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

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