Flyeye's view of asteroid 2025 KQ

Observations of asteroid 2025 KQ made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope.

These images were acquired on 21 May, during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign.

2025 KQ was first discovered just two days earlier on 19 May by the Mt. Lemmon Survey observatory. These images therefore demonstrate the ability of ESA’s Flyeye telescope to conduct rapid follow-up observations of newly discovered near-Earth objects. Follow-up observations allow astronomers to more accurately understand the orbit of the new object and to assess whether it poses any hazard to Earth.

This animation was produced using 67 images taken over a period of roughly 15 minutes. Each image was taken with a short 10 second exposure processed using a technique called ‘synthetic tracking’. The method involves stacking the exposures following the motion of the asteroid, as opposed to the background stars. This causes the stars appear trailed, while the asteroid, which is moving relative to the stars, remains round.

With an apparent magnitude of 20.1, 2025 KQ was the faintest object that Flyeye observed during the first light campaign.