The bizarrely-shaped asteroid appears to be what is known as a contact binary, which is an asteroid with two lobes that are stuck together. The images show the rotation of the asteroid, named 1999 JD6, which made its closest approach on July 24 at 9:55 p.m. PDT (12:55 a.m. EDT on July 25). The asteroid remained at a distance of about 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km), or about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon.
At last I can see my grandchild again... thanks to my new 'Hubble telescope' eyes
Irene da Silva, 81, has become one of the first British patients to benefit from a revolutionary new eye implant inspired by a flaw in the Hubble space telescope.
Watch the terrifying moment a great white shark RAMS a boat and almost capsizes it ... but don't worry, it's only saying 'hello'
EXCLUSIVE: A video shot in New Zealand shows a great white rocking and biting at a boat with two men on board, but an expert told MailOnline that it was not showing aggressive behavior. The chilling clip comes from a Discovery Channel documentary called 'Lair of the Mega Shark' which airs this Sunday. In it, shark experts Jeff Kerr and Andy Casagrande head to New Zealand to investigate the sightings of a 20 foot Great White Shark and tag them with a fin cam to track the sharks and their migration.
How stars travel the Milky Way: Map provides the first evidence of stellar migration in our galaxy
The map, created by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III, found that nearly a third of the stars in our own galaxy have dramatically changed their orbits. It shows how stars tend to migrate radially, moving closer or farther from the galactic center with time. The study could provide astronomers with a new understanding of how stars are formed and travel throughout the Milky Way.
- At last I can see my grandchild again... thanks to my new 'Hubble telescope' eyes: Grandmother becomes one of the first British patients to benefit from revolutionary new eye implant
- Will the iCar be made by BMW? Rumours suggest Apple's fabled vehicle could be based on the electric i3 model
- Is the truth out there? TEN UFOs are spotted ‘dancing’ in the skies above Japan sparking mystery
- The 4x4 of mobile phones: Caterpillar's S40 rugged handset is made to withstand sun, water, dust, and shocks
- Buzzed by a 'space peanut': Nasa reveals strange shaped asteroid that passed just 4.5m miles from Earth last weekend
- The curse of the 'cool kids': Children who are popular at school become losers later in life, claims study
- Microsoft’s Chinese ‘girlfriend app’ becomes huge hit: Xiaoice listens, asks how you're feeling and can even makes jokes
- Is this the weirdest factory in the world? Cutting-edge lab produces one million sterilised mosquitoes per WEEK...in attempt to combat killer disease spread by the insect
- Marines claim $3.5bn F-35B fighter jet is finally ready for service even though it was outperformed by a 40 year old F-16 and lacks the software to fire its own cannons
- Did Hitler have an atomic weapon? German documentary claims Nazis were developing a 'flying saucer' to deliver bomb and had already started tests on Russian POWs
- Microsoft admits it is struggling with 'unprecedented' demand for Windows 10 as it reveals software has already been installed on 14 MILLION machines
- Watch the terrifying moment a great white shark RAMS a boat and almost capsizes it ... but don't worry, it's only saying 'hello'
- Every car needs Windows: Microsoft buys into Uber as car app is valued at $51 BILLION
- Will AI make us STUPID? Will.i.am fears we're investing more in robot intelligence than our own - but he's confident pop stars won't be replaced by androids
- Scientists reveal brain interface that can control a cursor accurately enough to allow the paralysed to type and control a wheelchair
- New hair layer discovered: Mysterious component may give hair strength and could lead to better shampoos
- Is there a jellyfish invasion on its way? Venomous Portuguese man o' war washes up on British beach
- The chameleon Lamborghini: Vehicle changes colour to reveal a Captain America design thanks to heat-sensitive paint
- The curse of the 'cool kids': Children who are popular at school become losers later in life, claims study
- Great ball of fire! Incredible footage captures bright green meteor with an orange trail soaring across the sky over Buenos Aires
- Buzzed by a 'space peanut': Nasa reveals strange shaped asteroid that passed just 4.5m miles from Earth last weekend
- Asteroid impact triggered sudden cooling on Earth 12,800 years ago - and may have killed off the mammoths
- Microsoft admits it is struggling with 'unprecedented' demand for Windows 10 as it reveals software has already been installed on 14 MILLION machines
- How stars travel the Milky Way: Map provides the first evidence of stellar migration in our galaxy
- Marines claim $3.5bn F-35B fighter jet is finally ready for service even though it was outperformed by a 40 year old F-16 and lacks the software to fire its own cannons
- Microsoft under fire as Windows 10 users find playing Solitaire now costs $10 a year (unless you want to sit through video ads)
- Watch the terrifying moment a great white shark RAMS a boat and almost capsizes it ... but don't worry, it's only saying 'hello'
- Microsoft’s Chinese ‘girlfriend app’ becomes huge hit: Xiaoice listens, asks how you're feeling and can even makes jokes
- Scientists reveal brain interface that can control a cursor accurately enough to allow the paralysed to type and control a wheelchair
- MOST READ IN DETAIL
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The African golden jackal is a WOLF: First new canid species to be found in 150 years was hiding in plain sight, say scientists
Genetic analysis by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington has found golden jackals of Africa (left) and Eurasia (right) are two distantly related species. The scientific name for the golden jackal is Canis aureus. The researchers proposed renaming those in Africa Canis anthus, or the African golden wolf. The researchers determined that the African golden jackal lineage split from the lineage including gray wolves and coyotes about 1.3 million years ago while the Eurasian golden jackal lineage split about 600,000 years earlier.
A tale of two coasts: Stunning Nasa satellite animation reveals record rainfall on the east side of the US while the west scorches
From the Rockies westward, rainfall has been much sparser over the last six months, meanwhile California and the southwest received little relief from their punishing drought. The Pacific northwest has received below average rainfall and not enough snowfall which they, like California, rely on for part of their water supply. Accumulated rain totals are shown in different colours: 0 to 1 inch is light blue, up to 12 inches is green, up to 20 inches is yellow, and up to 40 inches is red.
Once in a blue moon: Rare phenomenon of two full moons within a calendar month happens TONIGHT
From arty shots of statues seemingly supporting the moon (right), to images of iconic landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, (top left and bottom left) stargazers have captured the 'blue moon' on camera across the UK and in New York City. The astronomical phenomenon doesn't turn the Earth's satellite sapphire, but happens when a full moon occurs twice in a calendar month. While the lunar event is already underway, it is at its most impressive tonight and will be the first blue moon to occur since 2012.
The 4x4 of mobile phones: Caterpillar's S40 rugged handset is made to withstand sun, water, dust, and shocks
The S40 (pictured) is water, dust and shock-proof, boasts a large capacity battery and has glove-on and wet-finger tracking technology. The Caterpillar S40 will go on sale tomorrow for £399.99 (€429). The new device, running Android's latest Lollipop OS, is equipped with 4G and will go on sale from tomorrow. The S40's super bight screen - allowing the device to be viewed in direct sunlight - is the biggest change from the last release.
The Death Star weapon is here! Japan fires world's most powerful laser to produce energy equal to 1,000 times the planet's power consumption
Osaka University was able to produce a 2-petawatt - or 2 quadrillion-watt - laser beam using the Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments. This is equivalent to 1,000 times the world's electricity consumption, causing the laser to be compared to that on the Death Star in Star Wars (inset). The energy of the laser beam itself was only powerful enough to run a microwave for around two seconds. However, the team were able to produce such a high output by concentrating the power to 1 pico-second, or around a trillionth of a second.
Return of the FLIP PHONE: LG unveils budget 90s-style mobile with a small screen and a 3MP camera
The LG Gentle handset (pictured) has a 3.2-inch colour touch screen and will launch in South Korea, but there's no news whether the smartphone will come to the UK or US. With a circular navigation button in the centre of the physical keypad, the handset bears a striking resemblance to the more basic handsets many of us cherished over a decade ago.
Facebook's drone is ready for take off: Firm reveals giant craft with the wingspan of a 737 designed to beam the internet to Earth
Facebook says it will begin test flights later this year of a solar-powered drone with the wingspan of a Boeing 737, the next stage of its campaign to deliver Internet service to remote parts of the world. Engineers at the giant social network say they've now completed a drone (main image) with a 140-foot wingspan that weighs less than 1,000 pounds. It will use lasers to send Internet signals to stations on the ground (bottom left).
Jamestown's original four colonial leaders discovered buried under the church where Pocahontas was married amid claims one may have been a Spanish SPY
Archaeologists have uncovered human remains of four of the earliest leaders of the English colony that would become America (main image), buried for more than 400 years near the altar of what was America's first Protestant church in Jamestown, Virginia (top right). Researchers were stunned to find one of the, identified as Capt. Gabriel Archer , a vociferous critic and rival of Captain John Smith, was buried with catholic artefacts (bottom right), leading to claims he was part of a secret catholic cell or a Spanish spy.
VIDEO GAME NEWS
Will a robot take your job? Majority of senior managers say they would use a robot to do white collar office work
All around the world... and beyond
British photographers Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah captured apes in Indonesia and Borneo - and highlighted how human our evolutionary cousins are.