Asteroid 2008 HJ

[blobrana]

Asteroid 2008 HJ was discovered on 24th April by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR (http://www.ll.mit.edu/mission/space/linear/)), five days before it passed within 1.1 million km (less than 3 lunar distances) of the Earth on 29th April, 18:00 UT.
The 12 x 24 metre Apollo asteroid has been measured to have one of the fastest rotations, with a 42.67 ± 0.04 seconds rotation.

See more (http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?objects:2008HJ;main)

[USS Athens]

So where's that put it on the scale of "Astrological Records?"

[blobrana]

So where's that put it..

It's now at the (spinning)top

[MetaKron]

The thing's small enough to use as a lawn ornament. It takes millions of times less angular momentum to spin it.

[blobrana]

Hum,
it would have to be a very large lawn though.

[MetaKron]

Hum,
it would have to be a very large lawn though.

I've lived places that could accommodate it.

[blobrana]

"A British amateur astronomer has discovered the fastest rotating natural object known in our Solar System, using data from FT South.
His observations, made using a telescope normally shared by school students and professional scientists as part of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN), have proved that the newly-discovered asteroid, 2008 HJ (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2008+HJ+&orb=1) is revolving once every 42.7 seconds, classifying it is as a ‘superfast rotator’. His discovery will boost our sparse knowledge of near Earth asteroids and is another successful find for the Faulkes Telescope near-Earth asteroid project. "

Read more (http://faulkes-telescope.com/news/1939)