The asteroid was named 2022 AP7. It is one of three asteroids discovered by Scott Sheppard and his colleagues at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington. According to them, it is “potentially dangerous”.
With a diameter of about 1.1-2.3 kilometers, it is second study in the Astronomical Journal asteroid 2022 AP7 the largest discovered since 2014 and probably among five percent of the largest ever found.
“Any asteroid larger than a kilometer is considered a planet killer,” Sheppard said, adding that if such a body were to hit Earth, the impact would be devastating to life as we know it.
The impact would raise so much dust, ash and other matter in the atmosphere that it would cover the sky for years. “The Earth’s surface would likely cool significantly because sunlight would not reach the planet. There would be a mass extinction, such as has not been observed on Earth for millions of years, “the astronomer pointed out.
But the study rules out the worst-case scenarios. “It currently has no chance of hitting Earth,” added Sheppard. Currently, 2022 AP7 crosses Earth’s orbit at a time when the Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun.
However, this can change over time. The asteroid slowly begins to cross the Earth’s path closest to where our planet is. According to Sheppard, “however, it will take several centuries and we don’t know the orbit of 2022 AP7 well enough to say anything about its danger in several centuries.”
A new look at space
Sheppard pointed out that many more close-to-Earth bodies of similar size will be found in the coming years, thanks to his new methods using the four-meter Blanc telescope in Chile.
Jay Tate, director of the National Near Earth Object Information Center, also remains calm. He told The Guardian newspaper that he’s definitely not losing sleep in AP7 2022, according to him, Earth is a very small target. ‘At the moment, however, the likelihood of an impact is quite low. I would not say negligible, but relatively low.’
Humanity also currently has an ace up its sleeve for the first time in its history: a weapon capable of protecting the Earth. In September, the US agency NASA launched the DART mission, during which it crashed into a harmless asteroid with an artificial satellite. The goal was to deflect the asteroid from orbit and test the technology that could eventually be used to fight really dangerous bodies. In October, the agency confirmed that the DART mission was a complete success.
