A huge asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of Earth has been found, raising the remote possibility of a catastrophic impact, according to a global team of scientists.
The asteroid, designated 2022 AP7, was found in a region where it is notoriously difficult to see asteroids because of the Sun’s glare. It is 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) diameter.
It was discovered alongside two other near-Earth asteroids with the use of a sophisticated tool installed on the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile that was initially created to investigate dark matter.
According to senior researcher and astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science, “2022 AP7 crosses Earth’s orbit, which makes it a potentially dangerous asteroid, but it presently does not now or anytime in the future have a track that will have it collide with the Earth.”
The potential danger stems from the fact that, like any orbiting object, the course of the item would gradually change as a result of various gravitational influences, most notably those exerted by planets. Long-term forecasts are therefore challenging.
According to NOIRLab, a US-funded scientific organisation that runs many observatories, the recently detected asteroid is “the largest potentially dangerous object to Earth to be identified in the previous eight years.”
Under its present orbit, 2022 AP7 circles the Sun in five years, staying several million kilometres from Earth at its closest point.
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