China’s Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) discovered two asteroids near Earth, the two asteroids were named 2023 WX1 and 2023 WB2.
Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) in Lenghu City, Qinghai Province, China. ANTARA/Xinhua/HO University of Science and Technology of China. ANTARA/Xinhua.
JAKARTA – A wide field telescope (Wide Field Survey Telescope/WFST) capable of observing the entire sky from the northern hemisphere has discovered two asteroids near Earth.
The two celestial bodies were first discovered on November 18 by WFST, which began operations in September 2023 in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) under the International Astronomical Union (IAU) later confirmed the telescope’s discovery and named the two asteroids as 2023 WX1 and 2023 WB2.
Astronomers say, with an estimated diameter of 170 meters, 2023 WX1 is categorized as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. This is because it has a “Minimum Earth Orbit Intersection Distance of 0.0416 astronomical units,” or the equivalent of 6.22 million kilometers, as quoted from Between.
Having a diameter of 2.5 meters, WFST was developed by the University of Science and Technology of China together with the Purple Mountain Observatory under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 2022, this telescope was named Mozi after the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi, also known as Micius, who is said to have been the first person in history to conduct optical experiments.
One of the main purposes of this telescope is to survey objects in the solar system.
According to Zhao Haibin, head of the solar system objects study program at WFST, astronomers using this telescope have discovered a number of main belt asteroids and rediscovered several near-Earth asteroids.
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2024-01-04 09:18:00
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