New Delhi: A large “planet-killer” asteroid is expected to dangle from Earth’s orbit soon, but poses no threat. So far.
This potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) measures about 1.1 km to 2.3 km in diameter and is reportedly in the top 5 percent of the largest space rocks ever found. While the asteroid has no chance of actually coming close to Earth, it could pose a threat to our planet centuries in the future, according to astronomers, as it swings back into its orbit.
asteroid has been reported astronomical journal by the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington. Study lead author Scott Shepard and his colleagues found three significantly larger asteroids, one of which is 2022 AP7. “Any asteroid greater than 1 km in size is considered a planet killer,” Told Shepard.
Shepard’s team used a special telescope called the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. They could only scan the sky during a 10-minute window at twilight, as the Sun’s glare makes these behemoths difficult to notice when coming from the Sun’s direction.
While the other two asteroids discovered by the team pose no threat, 2022 AP7 also does not pose any threat to Earth in the near future. Shepard said, “There is currently no chance of hitting Earth, because when the asteroid crosses its orbit, Earth will be on a completely different side of the Sun. When it crosses, it will be as close as near 70 lakh km from the earth.
This isn’t the first time this planet killer is crossing our path. 2022 AP7 orbits the Sun once every five years. This year, even though it will enter Earth’s orbit when Earth is on the opposite side, it may eventually catch up and coordinate its motion with our planet. But it’s expected in centuries Future,
“If it hits Earth, it will cause planet-wide destruction. It would be very bad for life as we know it,” Dr. Shepard Told,
Asteroid hitting Earth will reduce the planet’s temperature significantly because light will not reach the planet. Shepard further said, this could lead to mass extinction in our future generations.
To offset the impact of potential hazards from celestial bodies, NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirect Test) mission It was recently launched in September. The mission involved deliberately pushing a spacecraft into a harmless asteroid, to test whether it could veer off its course and change its orbit. This experiment proved successful and thus the method could be applied to defend the Earth against large space rocks.
However, Jay Tate, director of the National Near Earth Object Information Center in Mid Wales, Told In the case of 2022 AP7 DART may not be the answer, because of how massive the asteroid is, but there could be other ways.
There are still about 50 undiscovered potentially dangerous asteroids out there, hidden by the sun’s glare – and that’s a cause for concern. By conjecture, we have already discovered 95% PHA’s so far, out of about 1,000 that exist.
However, work is underway on another NASA project. The US space agency is working on a telescope as part of a project called the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor to track more of these planet-killers. It is expected to be launched by 2028.
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