eso_ann14004a January 21st, 2014
Credit: ESO
The faint spot at the centre of this picture from ESO's Very Large Telescope is the Near-Earth Object 2009 FD. It may look insignificant, but there was a possibility that this asteroid would collide with the Earth in the future and cause devastation. Fortunately the latest VLT observations, part of a collaboration with the European Space Agency, have shown that this is much less likely than initially feared. The stars in this picture appear trailed as the telescope was tracking the motion of the asteroid during the exposures.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann14004a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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