An asteroid moves strangely next to Earth... and scientists are at a loss!

 A new NASA study shows that an asteroid that flew precariously by Earth in early February had an unusual shape and rotation that surprised scientists, according to the journal Live Science. I was.  And astronomers have finally taken a closer look at a "potentially dangerous" asteroid that has safely passed through Earth. What they saw was "a strangely elongated space rock for an asteroid" rotating much more slowly than expected.

NASA Scientists Observe 1,600-ft Long Asteroid Fly Past Earth, Revealing Its Bizarre Shape: NASA's recent observations of asteroid 2011 AG5 have provided valuable insights into the object's size, rotation, surface features, orbit around the sun, and… https://t.co/GsNN1p0Kot pic.twitter.com/kbykSZ0q3O

The cosmic rock made headlines at the time as researchers predicted that the asteroid would take 621 days to orbit the Sun and could enter a catastrophic collision course with Earth in 2040. However, follow-up observations in 2012 showed that its orbit was grossly miscalculated. A threat to our planet.

Discovered in 2011

The asteroid anomaly, known as 2011 AG5, was discovered in January 2011 and flew within 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometres) of Earth in February 2023. )'s Goldstone Radar, - a NASA facility in Southern California.

PIA25259: Radar Observations of Elongated Near-Earth Asteroid 2011 AG5 pic.twitter.com/wJstEPItdm

The researchers took several pictures of the asteroid, and from mysterious images, asteroid 2011 AG5 is 1,600 feet (500 meters) long and about 500 feet (150 meters) wide, standing on New York's Empire State Building. was found to be of the order of .

Radar His scans also allowed researchers to calculate the asteroid's rotation, showing that the rectangular body takes about nine hours to make one revolution of her. This is a much longer rotation period than most asteroids.

Additionally, the researchers wrote in a statement:

"It's not clear why asteroids rotate so slowly."

Black spots.. And riddles!

The new images also reveal dark and bright spots several feet wide on the asteroid's surface. This could indicate the presence of many small surface features scattered throughout the asteroid. However, according to the scientific journal, what it is is still a mystery.

Paul Chodas, director of the Volnassa Near-Earth Object Research Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in his statement:

"These new range measurements made by the Planetary Radar team will improve future positioning," he added. "This will increase our chances of learning more about this strange space rock."

The researchers hope that additional data about the asteroid's trajectory collected by new radar scans will be able to pinpoint its position in the future, which could help explain its unusual properties.