[meteorite-list] Triple Asteroid System Triples Observers' Interest (Asteorid 1994 CC)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2259

Triple Asteroid System Triples Observers' Interest
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 06, 2009

Radar imaging at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar on June 12 
and 14, 2009, revealed that near-Earth asteroid 1994 CC is a triple 
system. Asteroid 1994 CC encountered Earth within 2.52 million 
kilometers (1.56 million miles) on June 10. Prior to the flyby, 
very little was known about this celestial body. 1994 CC is only 
the second triple system known in the near-Earth population. A 
team led by Marina Brozovic and Lance Benner, both scientists at 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., made the 
discovery.

1994 CC consists of a central object about 700 meters (2,300 feet) 
in diameter that has two smaller moons revolving around it. 
Preliminary analysis suggests that the two small satellites are at 
least 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter. Radar observations at 
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, led by the center's director 
Mike Nolan, also detected all three objects, and the combined 
observations from Goldstone and Arecibo will be utilized by JPL 
scientists and their colleagues to study 1994 CC's orbital and 
physical properties.

The next comparable Earth flyby for asteroid 1994 CC will occur 
in the year 2074 when the space rock trio flies past Earth at a 
distance of two-and-a-half million kilometers (1.6 million miles).

Of the hundreds of near-Earth asteroids observed by radar, only 
about 1 percent are triple systems.