Stereo View of Asteroid 2014 J025

May 01, 2017

AsteroidJO25_May_Parker (1)

Photographers: Brian May; Greg Parker
Summary Authors: Greg Parker; Jim Foster

The photo pair above shows a stereo view of Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) 2014 J025 as it passed by Earth on April 19, 2017. 2014 JO25 is shown here (the dashed line) moving through the constellation of Canes Venatici. The bright star to its right (SAO 63514) is used as a reference point. This 0.8 mile diameter (1300 m), chunk of rock missed us by approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million km) or about 4.5 times the Moon's distance to us -- its nearest approach to Earth in 400 years. As daunting in size as it is, as relatively close as it was and in spite of relative brightness (about twice as reflective as the Moon), it was still much too dim to be a naked eye object, coming in at around magnitude 10.2.

This image pair can be viewed by free viewing and by using a stereo viewer such as the OWL. Click here for instructions on how to view using both of these approaches.

Photo Details: Data captured by Greg Parker with a Sky90 and M26C OSC CCD; 9 x 5-minute sub exposures with a 1-minute gap between subs, at the New Forest Observatory in England. Stereographic pair created by Dr. Brian May using Photoshop.