Updated: Asteroid YU55 “Puzzling Structures”: Equatorial Ridge and Tall, “Pointy” Hill?

“There is a rather sharp, little pointy - hill?
It appears to be 66 feet to 98 feet (20 - 30 meters) above the
surrounding topography. We don't really understand yet what that is
- just one feature in particular that sticks up on YU55.”

- Lance Benner, Ph.D., Planetary Scientist and Asteroid Specialist,
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, Calif.

Asteroid 2005 YU55 radar image of asteroid was obtained on November 7, 2011, at 11:45 AM PST when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, about 860,000 miles (1.38 million km), from Earth. The next day November 8, at 3:28 PM Pacific, YU55 moved closest to the Earth at 30,000 mph, 201,700 miles from Earth measured from the center of our planet. Radar image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. See NASA Nov. 7 brief video of radar images in websites below.

Updated December 22, 2011: This week, I received the following email exchange from Russell, Kentucky resident Marty Dowell, who contacted her Congressman Ed Whitfield's office for more information about where the November 8, 9, and 10 radar images are from the close pass of the asteroid YU55 between Earth and moon. The Congressman's office received this emailed reply from NASA/JPL: “NASA was unable to capture images of 2005 YU55 using radar on November 8 due to the rapid angle of motion of the object across the sky at that time.”

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