FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov. 8, 2011 Media Contact: Larry O'Hanlon Communications Officer W.M. Keck Observatory lohanlon@keck.hawaii.edu +1-808-881-3827 LIVE WEBCAST: GIANT TELESCOPE TO WATCH ASTEROID FLYBY Kamuela HI - One of the world's largest optical/infrared telescopes will be attempting to catch near infrared light images of asteroid YU55 on Nov. 8. The observing run will be webcast live UStream from the Keck II Remote Operations room in Kamuela, Hawaii, starting no later than 7 pm local time (9 pm U.S. PST / 0500 UT). At the helm of the 10-meter Keck II telescope and using Keck's pioneering adaptive optics to view YU55 will be asteroid investigators William Merline and Peter Tamblyn of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.; and Chris Neyman of Keck Observatory. Asteroid YU55, will be making its closest approach to Earth - just 324,600 kilometers - today at 3:26 pm U.S. PST. Keck observers will be trying to see the asteroid as it flies directly overhead and away from Earth. Their hope is to get near-infrared images and attempt to get a three-dimensional view of the asteroid, as well as to search for moons of the asteroid. The live webcast is being produced in cooperation with Keck Observatory, The Astronomical League and The Planetary Society and will be available via the following links: http://keckobservatory.org/news_preview/live_webcast_keck_telescope_to_watch_asteroid_flyby/ http://planetary.org http://www.astroleague.org/KeckYu55 http://news.discovery.com/space/keck-live-asteroid-2005yu55-111108.html (going live at 5 pm PST) For questions during the webcast, please email Larry O'Hanlon directly at lohanlon@keck.hawaii.edu, watch via the Keck Observatory Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/W-M-Keck-Observatory/258556413246?sk=app_196506863720166) or tweet using the hashtag #KeckAsteroidWatch. The telescope time to study asteroid YU55 was awarded as part of NASA's share of the time on this telescope. The work is funded by NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program and NSF's Planetary Astronomy Program. # # # The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The twin telescopes feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectroscopy and a world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics system which cancels out much of the interference caused by Earth's turbulent atmosphere. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.