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L. A. M. Benner (JPL/CalTech), M. C. Nolan (NAIC/Arecibo Observatory), S. J. Ostro, J. D. Giorgini (JPL/CalTech), C. Magri (Univ. of Maine at Farmington), J. L. Margot (Cornell University)
Arecibo (2380 MHz, 13 cm) radar observations of 2005 CR37 provide detailed images of a candidate contact binary: a 1.6-km-long, extremely bifurcated object. Although the asteroid's two lobes are round, there are regions of modest topographic relief, such as an elevated, 200-m-wide facet, that suggest that the lobes are geologically more complex than either coherent fragments or homogeneous rubble piles. Since January 1999, about 9% of near-Earth asteroids larger than ~200 m imaged by radar have been candidate contact binaries.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.