Astronomers have discovered a giant asteroid lurking in the sunlight that could one day cross the Earth.
The 1.5 km wide asteroid is the largest potentially dangerous asteroid discovered in the past eight years and has been dubbed the “planet killer” by astronomers as the effects of its impact will be felt on multiple continents.
The asteroid, named 2022 AP7, has managed to avoid detection for so long because it orbits in the region between Earth and Venus. To detect space rocks in this area, astronomers have to look in the direction of the sun, which is notoriously difficult due to the sun’s brightness. For this reason, astronomers have only a limited understanding of the nature of the asteroids lurking in this region, and surprises can sometimes occur.
“To date, only about 25 asteroids have been discovered with orbits that are entirely within Earth’s orbit, due to the difficulty of observing near the solar aurora,” the statement said. declaration Scott S. Sheppard, astronomer at the Earth and Planetary Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute for Science and Science, lead author of the paper.
“So far, we have detected two large asteroids close to Earth with a diameter of about 1 km, a size we call planet killer,” Sheppard said.
Because asteroids within the solar system are so difficult to detect, they are underrepresented in the general population models of the solar system’s space rocks. However, Sheppard believes there are only a few unknown “planet killers” left in this difficult-to-observe region. The good news is that most of these unknown asteroids are likely to follow orbits that keep them at a safe distance from Earth.
“There are likely only a few close-to-Earth asteroids of similar size to be found, and these large undiscovered asteroids likely have orbits that keep them within the orbits of Earth and Venus most of the time,” Sheppard said.
In addition to the potentially dangerous 2022 AP7, astronomers have discovered two other smaller space rocks in DEC observations, one of which is the closest to the Sun ever seen. Due to its proximity to a star at the center of the solar system, this asteroid, called 2021 PH27, experiences the greatest effects of general relativity of any object in the solar system, scientists said in a statement.
Astronomers are currently monitoring more than 2,200 potentially dangerous asteroids, space rocks that orbit dangerously close to Earth and are more than 1km wide. Fortunately, astronomers can calculate asteroid trajectories for centuries to come and there are currently no known space rocks to worry about.
And when such a dangerous asteroid appears, the global space community hopes to have the tools to protect the planet in their hands. In September, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully altered the trajectory of the 160m-wide satellite asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits its 780m-wide mother rock Didymos.
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