Asteroid (4179) Toutatis passes the Earth

The asteroid (4179) Toutatis, as photographed with the FORS1 multimode instrument at the 8.2-m VLT Kueyen telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory. At the time of these exposures, the asteroid was about 1,640,000 km from the Earth and moving rapidly across the sky in the southern constellation Ara (The Altar).

The exposure time was 5 min while the telescope was following the normal diurnal motion; the stars now appear as points of light, while the asteroid's long trail crosses the entire field-of-view. Both photos were obtained through a narrow optical filter.

Crédit:

ESO

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0430b
Type:Observation
Date de publication:29 septembre 2004
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0430
Taille:2048 x 2042 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:4179 Toutatis
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid
Catégorie:Solar System

Image Formats

Grand JPEG
979,3 Kio
JPEG taille écran
129,3 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
131,1 Kio
1280x1024
227,8 Kio
1600x1200
374,4 Kio
1920x1200
518,6 Kio
2048x1536
796,1 Kio

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineTélescope
VisibleVery Large Telescope
FORS1

Exposure time: 300s