The Near-Earth Asteroid 2012 OD1 is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, meaning that it is big enough (about 300m across), and that its orbit comes close enough to Earth, that it could one-day in the future end up on a collision course. The asteroid will come within about 15 lunar distances (5.7 million km) in a few days time, and so radar observations have started to try and learn more about the asteroid. The image above shows the 70m DSS-43 antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Compex as it transmits a continuous wave tone toward the asteroid, while the Australia Telescope Compact Array also tracked the asteroid to pick up a signal reflected from the asteroid. The apparent beam emanating from DSS-43 is not the result of the radio beam tranvsersing the foggy atmosphere, but rather the contrail of a passing plane! Early analysis suggests the asteroid was too far away on this occasion for an echo to be detected — another attempt will be made later this week as it nears its closest approach to Earth. (Image credit: Shinji Horiuchi)