Asteroid (4179) Toutatis passes the Earth

Eso_eso0430c_1024

eso_eso0430c September 29th, 2004

Credit: ESO

These photos were obtained nearly simultaneously in the morning of September 29, at 02:30 hrs UT, when the asteroid was passing through the constellation of Triangulum Australe ("The Southern Triangle"). The offset between the two trails corresponds to the difference of the lines-of-sight from the two telescopes towards the object. Two 1-min images were taken almost simultaneously with the FORS-1 instrument on Kueyen, the second 8.2m VLT Unit Telescope on Paranal, and on the WFI camera installed on the ESO/MPI 2.2m telescope at La Silla. The WFI image was obtained though a R broad-band filter; on the VLT, a narrow band [O III] interference filter was used to attenuate the light of the bright asteroid. The images were then scaled and processed in order to compensate for the different characteristics of the two instruments (scale, orientation, distortion, sensitivity). The VLT image is displayed in red, the WFI image in green. As the stars are common to both images, they appear yellowish.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0430c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
4179 Toutatis
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Asteroid

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (R) -
Green VLT (FORS1) Optical (Oiii) -
Eso_eso0430c_1280
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ID
eso0430c
Subject Category
A.2.3  
Subject Name
4179 Toutatis
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2004-09-29T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0430c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
WFI, FORS1
Color Assignment
Red, Green
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, Oiii
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
2309.0, 2451.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0430c
Metadata Date
2016-07-19T08:46:40+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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