Atmospheric diffraction type of dust in the atmosphere. The ionosphere is a layer of partially ionized gases high above the majority of the Earth's atmosphere; these gases are ionized by cosmic rays originating on the sun. When radio waves travel into this zone, which commences about 80 kilometers above the earth, they experience diffraction in a manner similar to the visible light phenomenon described above. In this case some of the electromagnetic energy is bent in a large arc, such that it can return to the Earth's surface at a very distant point (on the order of hundreds of kilometers from the
2002 AA29 reflects radio waves only weakly. In the former case it would have to have an unusually high albedo. This would be evidence in support of the speculation that it, or at least the material of which it is composed, is different from most other asteroids so far discovered on near-Earth orbits, or represents a fragment thrown off by the collision of a medium-sized asteroid with the Earth or the Moon. Using radar echo measurements at the Arecibo radio telescope the rotational period of could be determined. In this radar astronomy procedure radio waves of known wavelength are emitted from a