Using the planetary radar system at Arecibo Observatory, astronomers have determined that asteroid 2012 LZ1 is twice as large as originally estimated based on its brightness, and large enough to have serious global consequences if it were to hit the Earth. However, a new orbit solution also derived from the radar measurements shows that this object does not have any chance of hitting the Earth for at least the next 750 years.
Asteroid 2012 LZ1 is roughly spherical and rotates once around every 10-15 hours. This detailed image was taken when the asteroid was 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) away. The resolution is 7.5 m (25 feet), equivalent to seeing a basketball in New York City from Puerto Rico.
