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This potato-shaped asteroid flew past Earth this month

It was described by scientists as the most elongated ever imaged.

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A little under five times the distance between the Moon and Earth, there was no risk of the asteroid – called 2011 AG5 – impacting our planet.(Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech via SWNS)

By Dean Murray via SWNS

A potato-shaped asteroid that flew past Earth this month is being described as the most elongated ever imaged.

On Feb. 3, a space rock more than three times as long as it is wide safely flew past Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8m km).

A little under five times the distance between the Moon and Earth, there was no risk of the asteroid – called 2011 AG5 – impacting our planet.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were able to closely track the object, making invaluable observations to help determine its size, rotation, surface details, and, most notably, shape.

Lance Benner, principal scientist at JPL who helped lead the observations, explains: "Of the 1,040 near-Earth objects observed by planetary radar to date, this is one of the most elongated we’ve seen."

Closely tracked by NASA's Deep Space Network, this close approach provided the first opportunity for to take a detailed look at the asteroid since it was discovered in 2011

It revealed an object about 1,600 feet (500 metres) long and about 500 feet (150 metres) wide – dimensions comparable to the Empire State Building.

The powerful 230-foot (70-metre) Goldstone Solar System Radar antenna dish at the Deep Space Network’s facility near Barstow, California, revealed the dimensions of this extremely elongated asteroid.

Paul Chodas, the director for CNEOS at JPL, says: "Interestingly, shortly after its discovery, 2011 AG5 became a poster-child asteroid when our analysis showed it had a small chance of a future impact.

"Continued observations of this object ruled out any chance of impact, and these new ranging measurements by the planetary radar team will further refine exactly where it will be far into the future."

The Goldstone radar observations took place from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, capturing several other details: Along with a large, broad concavity in one of the asteroid’s two hemispheres, 2011 AG5 has subtle dark and lighter regions that may indicate small-scale surface features a few dozen metres across. The observations also confirmed 2011 AG5 has a slow rotation rate, taking nine hours to fully rotate.

NASA added that if the asteroid were viewed by the human eye, it would appear as dark as charcoal.

Beyond contributing to a better understanding of what this object looks like up close, the Goldstone radar observations provide a key measurement of the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun.

Radar provides precise distance measurements that can help scientists at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) refine the asteroid’s orbital path.

Asteroid 2011 AG5 orbits the Sun once every 621 days and won’t have a very close encounter with Earth until 2040, when it will safely pass our planet at a distance of about 670,000 miles (1.1 million kms, or nearly three times the Earth-Moon distance).

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