The discovery of the "planetary killer" that can hit the Earth
Astronomers have discovered an asteroid they call "planet killer", indicating the possibility that it will collide with Earth one day.
The asteroid, called "2022 AP7", was among 3 new asteroids close to Earth, "hiding" in the inner solar system , the name given to the region within the orbits of Earth and Venus.
Astronomers have difficulty finding asteroids in this region due to the intense glare of the sun, yet they were able to discover this trio due to favorable conditions during a short period of twilight.
Scientists succeeded in discovering asteroids using the dark energy camera installed on the Victor M Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tolo Inter American Observatory in Chile, as part of a program of the US National Science Foundation.
According to the scientists' report, the asteroid "2022 AP7", which is about 1.5 kilometers wide, has an orbit that may one day put it on the way to colliding with Earth, although it is difficult to determine exactly when this might happen.
"Our aurora survey scours the interior of the orbits of Earth and Venus in search of asteroids," said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planetary Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science and lead author of the paper describing this work .
He continued, in statements carried by the American news network "Fox News": "So far, we have found two large asteroids near Earth, with a diameter of about one kilometer, which is the size that we call planet killers."
However, the paper specifically talked about the possibility of the asteroid "2022 AP7" colliding with Earth, at a time it was not able to determine.
"It is believed that only a few asteroids of a similar size have orbits that would impact Earth," Sheppard explained.
Source: websites