Astronomers have discovered so-called “Planet killer” asteroids near Earth, which could pose a danger to the planet.
A total of three asteroids were discovered that were able to hide well behind the solar radiation. Asteroids belong to a group found in the orbits of the Earth and Venus, but they are difficult to observe because the Sun’s brightness protects them from telescope observations.
The new data was published Monday in The Astronomical Journal.
It can pose a threat
Two of the asteroids are so large that they pose a major threat to our world.
“So far, we have found two large asteroids close to Earth with a diameter of about 1 kilometer, a size we call planet killer,” says one of the astronomers behind the report. Scott S. Sheppard.
At the moment, asteroids pose no threat, but that could change if their orbits change. Such large asteroids would have caused dust clouds that had filled the atmosphere for years, preventing sunlight from reaching Earth if they collided with us.
“It caused a mass extinction on Earth that we haven’t seen for millions of years.”
Want to find more “planet killers”
The same team of astronomers hopes to find several new “planet killers” in the coming years. Astronomers already know about 95 percent of large objects that move close to the Earth. There are currently no asteroids threatening to collide with Earth, even though there are 27,000 near-Earth asteroids of all shapes and sizes.
NASA and other space agencies work tirelessly to find asteroids and other objects that could pose a threat to life on Earth.
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