Researchers from the USA discovered a large asteroid. It could cross Earth’s orbit in a few centuries – and cause a mass extinction.
Washington DC – Even though astronomers have been studying the solar system for many years, scientists continue to discover new phenomena in the vastness of the universe. A research team from the USA has now discovered three new asteroids. One of them could cross the orbit of the earth in a few hundred or thousand years. Experts refer to such asteroids as “planet killers”.
Astronomers are researching between Earth and Venus – and find potentially dangerous asteroids
The “planet killer” is called 2022 AP7 and is 1.5 kilometers wide. “2022 AP7 is likely the largest potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) discovered in about eight years,” the Washington researchers write in their study.
Astronomer Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington DC, along with an international team, studied asteroids located between Earth’s orbit and Venus. These investigations posed a major challenge for the researchers: Because they had to look in the direction of Venus against the sun, they only had two time windows of ten minutes each day. During twilight, they were able to look toward the Sun with a dark-energy camera on a four-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
Researchers discover ‘planet killer’: Could cause mass extinctions on Earth
This technology made it possible to discover the long-hidden asteroids. So far, only about 25 asteroids have been spotted orbiting entirely within Earth’s orbit because they’re difficult to observe near the bright sunlight, Sheppard explained.
“So far we’ve found two large near-Earth asteroids about a kilometer in diameter, a size that we call planet killers,” Sheppard said New York Times. “If this one hits Earth, it would destroy the entire planet. That would be very bad for life as we know it.” An impact on Earth could trap dust in the atmosphere for years, making it difficult for sunlight to reach Earth. The result would be a mass extinction the likes of which the earth has not seen for millions of years.
“Planet Killer” 2022 AP7: Danger of an asteroid impact is still centuries away
The large asteroid 2022 AP7 could one day hit Earth. However, experts do not assume that it will pose a threat in the next few years. It is currently seven million kilometers from Earth. An asteroid impact could last for centuries or even millennia. It’s possible that “it could become a problem for our descendants in the next few thousand years,” said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer not involved in the study New York Times.
The research team led by Shepperd assumes that there are other undiscovered near-Earth asteroids of similar sizes orbiting in similar orbits. In order to be prepared in an emergency, scientists are already arming themselves: At the end of September, a NASA research team shot down an asteroid to change its orbit. (sf)
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