User:Shantanunaidu/2000ET70 draft

(162421) 2000 ET70 is an Aten group Near-Earth asteroid and is listed as a potentially hazardous object. It was discovered on March 8, 2000 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program at Socorro, New Mexico.

Radar Observations
2000 ET70 was observed using the Arecibo and Goldstone radar systems during its close approach to the Earth in February 2012. Range-Doppler images at 15 meter range resolutions indicate that the surface is rich with kilometer-scale ridges and concavities.

Physical Characteristics
Whiteley (2001) published an absolute magnitude of 18.2 for this object. Radar-based shape modeling yeilded the asteroids dimensions to be 2.6 km × 2.2 km × 2.1 km with 5% uncertainties. The geometric albedo computed using these values is 0.019 ± 0.002 which is unusually low compared to the typical values for other NEAs.

It has an estimated sidereal period of 8.96 ± 0.02 hours and its spin pole is within 10o of ecliptic λ=80o and ecliptic β=-50o. Its lightcurve period is 8.947 ± 0.001 hours. The lightcurve period is a function of the sidereal period and the relative motion between the asteroid, the observer, and the Sun and can not be directly compared to the sidereal period.