Oh, great. By peering into twilight, boffins find 'planet killer' asteroids in our system
Astronomers have spotted an asteroid of sufficient size and orbit to cause Earth-wide destruction – if it were to ever strike our planet. And that's a mighty big if.
Over 30,000 near-Earth asteroids have been cataloged so far, and thousands of new entries are added each year. The latest trio of space rocks, however, are notable for their size and location.2021 PH27 is over a kilometre wide, is the nearest known asteroid to the Sun, and offers the hellish prospect of surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead when it's closest to our star.
"Currently, 2022 AP7 crosses Earth orbit, which means it is a potentially hazardous asteroid as it could one day collide with Earth, if Earth happened to be in its orbit at the exact spot the asteroid crosses it," Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the lead author of the paper, told"Currently there are no dates that would have 2022 AP7 collide with Earth and it is highly unlikely it ever will.
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