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Radar astronomy
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== Asteroids and comets == Radar provides the ability to study the shape, size and spin state of asteroids and comets from the ground. [[Radar imaging]] has produced images with up to 7.5-meter resolution. With sufficient data, the size, shape, spin and radar albedo of the target asteroids can be extracted. As of 2016, only 19 comets had been studied by radar,<ref name="detected"/> including [[73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann]], along with radar observations of 612 [[Near-Earth asteroid]]s and 138 [[Asteroid belt|Main belt asteroid]]s.<ref name="detected">{{cite web|url = http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/|title = Radar-Detected Asteroids and Comets|publisher = NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research|access-date = 2016-04-25}}</ref> By 2025, this had grown to 138 main-belt asteroids, 1148 near-Earth asteroids, and 23 comets.<ref name="detected"/> Many bodies are observed during their close [[flyby (spaceflight)|flyby]] of Earth. While operational the Arecibo Observatory provided information about Earth threatening comet and asteroid impacts, allowing impact and near miss predictions decades into the future such as those for [[99942 Apophis|Apophis]] and other bodies.<ref name="NSFrelease20-010"/> Being smaller, the [[Goldstone Solar System Radar]] is less sensitive and unable to provide the same predictive capacity.
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