TRIBUNNEWS.COM – A large asteroid the size of a skyscraper orbits near Earth, Astronomers report findings as quoted from Live Science.
The 180 meter long asteroid was detected thanks to a new Algorithm called HelioLinc3D which is designed to track large and dangerous space rocks (PHA).
The space rock has the official name 2022 SF298.
2022 SF298 is one of approximately 2,300 objects classified as capable of causing widespread damage to Earth, in the event of a head-on collision.
“The asteroid will approach Earth in September 2022, when it will fly within approximately 4.5 million miles (7.2 million kilometers) of our planet,” according to NASA.
But astronomers around the world failed to detect the asteroid in telescope data because the boulder was obscured by the starlight of the Milky Way.
Also read: BRIN Denies Asteroids the Size of 2 Times GBK Will Hit the Earth on 22 October 2022
The potentially hazardous asteroid 2022 SF289 (marked in red) appeared for four consecutive nights in telescope surveys, but was not seen for almost a year.
Now, researchers have finally revealed the existence of the space rock while testing a new algorithm tailor-made to detect large asteroids from small chunks of data.
Hidden Asteroids that are Hard to Detect
The detection of PHAs that are too hidden to be recognized by traditional methods is a huge justification for the algorithm.
To detect asteroids, the scientists tested the algorithm on archival data from the Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) Asteroid Survey in Hawaii.
They take at least four pictures of the same point in the sky every night.
Searches using algorithms caught something ATLAS missed: a large asteroid, visible in three separate sky images taken on September 19, 2022, and three the following night, reports Verve Times.
Also read: NASA Successfully Changes the Trajectory of Asteroid Dimorphos: Ready to Face Anything that Will Fall to Earth
ATLAS requires that an object appear in four separate images taken in one night before it can be considered an asteroid.
Because 2022 SF289 does not meet that criteria, the world has never known its proximity to our planet.
“From HelioLinc3D to AI-assisted code, the next decade’s discoveries will be a story of advances in algorithms as much as major new telescopes,” said Director of the Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Washington and team of new algorithm scientists, Mario Jurić.
(Tribunnews.com/Andari Wulan Nugrahani)
2023-08-03 09:43:28
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