Tuesday, November 04, 2014

A big asteroid discovered – 2014 UR116


An automatic telescope in Russia near the city of Kislovodsk has spotted an asteroid not sighted earlier. It has been now named 2014 UR116. This asteroid, estimated to be 370 meters in diameter, does not pose any threat of possible collision with the earth over the next six years or so. However, its orbit gets disturbed by the influences of venus and mars. So, there are no guaranties for the future! Obviously, earth's gravitation also plays a part in altering the object's orbit. Visit


Would it not be great if India builds an automatic telescope which makes available shots of specific areas of the sky on requests over the Internet? Many of us might spend some time looking for interesting astronomical phenomena if such images were easily available.

Srinivasan Ramani