Silvano Casulli, Colleverde di Guidonia, Rome, Italy, and R. Behrend, Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, have reported that they have taken photometric measurements over three recent nights of the 14th magnitude near earth asteroid (6406) 1992 MJ.
They observed deep eclipses (~0.7 mag) with a period of 0.28 days that indicate that the object is probably a binary asteroid.

"Astéroïde binaire, présentant des éclipses ou occultations.
Voir aussi (1089) Tama, (1313) Berna, (4492) Debussy, (854) Frostia, (90) Antiope et (1139) Atami"

(6406) 1992MJ was discovered by Henry E. Holt at the University of Arizona on June 28, 1992.

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

However, David Higgins, an Australian amateur astronomer, has also been working on the light curve of (6406) 1992 MJ, and the binary nature of it is not so convincing...
Higgins light curve (11kb, 735 x 484) verses Casulli light curve (11kb, 1024 x 768)

DATA

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

Is this the asteroid that is to zip by in a couple of days?

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

Hum,
the word on the street says it's cool.

2006-Jun-30 00:00 RA. 21 03 43.60 Dec. -09 15 05.9 mag 15
2006-Jul-01 00:00 RA. 21 03 34.86 Dec. -09 18 06.1 mag 15

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

No.

From the article cited in topic Huge Asteroid to Fly Past Earth July 3:

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0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

The only objection anyone has to Behrands 'claim' is the use of the word 'Probable' - could just be a French-English trasnlation thing but there is nothing probable about this target being a binary.

Other than direct visual or radar observation, the only thing that can 'guarantee' a binary is mutual events (like the LC events in Extrasolar planet searches).

Other scientists (Harris, Pravec, Kaasalienan and others) have shown that binarity is possible but the LC characteristics have been shown to only indicate very elongated asteroids (by direct observation) and no binaries to date.

Cheers

David Higgins

Hum,
i would tend to agree with you.
Perhaps after a few more observations we shall know either way.

Anyway, Tnx for your input.

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...