On January 7, a large asteroid flew past Earth. But the most interesting thing is that he noticed his own satellite. As the 2016 AZ8 converged with the Earth, researchers obtained radar photographs of the space rock at the Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico). It turned out that we have a dual system - the main asteroid and a smaller satellite.
2016 AZ8 Near-Earth Asteroid and its Satellite in the Arecibo Radar Review
The analysis showed that the larger object is 420 m in size (more than the Great Pyramid in Giza), and the smaller one is 400 m distant and 180 m wide. Fortunately, there was no reason for excitement, since the asteroid flew past us distances of 4.2 million km. In addition, it can be argued that he did not come close to us, at least until the 23rd century.
