PIA24038: Asteroid 2020 QG as Seen Through ZTF Telescope
The circled streak in the center of this image is asteroid 2020 QG, which came closer to Earth than any other non-impacting asteroid on record.
 Target Name:  Asteroid
 Instrument:  ZTF 
 Product Size:  1814 x 1298 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  NASA 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA24038.tif (3.107 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA24038.jpg (364.5 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The streak circled in the center of this image is asteroid 2020 QG, which came closer to Earth than any other nonimpacting asteroid on record. It was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on Sunday, Aug. 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (Saturday, Aug. 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT).

The wide-field camera image of the Zwicky Transient Facility, a sky-scanning survey telescope funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, and based at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in Southern California. The image was taken six hours after the close approach, as the asteroid was heading away from Earth.

Image Credit:
ZTF/Caltech Optical Observatories

Image Addition Date:
2020-08-18